Looking forward to her visit to India, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said New Delhi and Washington were ready to embark to the next stage of relations which would see a "dramatic expansion" in common agenda and a greater role for India in solving global challenges. "We see India as one of a few key partners worldwide who will help us shape the 21st century," Clinton said in Obama administration's first major policy reference to India.

Stating that the Indo-US nuclear deal had removed the "final barriers" to broader cooperation between the two countries, Clinton, who will be in New Delhi for high-level talks in July, said that the two countries were set to realize a "3.0 relationship", using the web language.

As part of the strategy, Clinton, speaking to top American and Indian corporate executives at the US Chamber of Commerce building yesterday, said India and the US would expand broader security relationship and increased cooperation on counter-terrorism and intelligence sharing. Saying that US and India had faced extraordinary challenges, Clinton referred to the tragic Mumbai attacks and said, "The President and I are committed to working with India in whatever way is appropriate to enhance India's ability to protect itself."

The US Secretary of State also touched on need to adapt the architecture of international institutions to reflect their new responsibilities and in this context she said, "India's moral stature and its long tradition of leadership among developing countries means it is well suited to take on challenges that multi-institution face."

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