MUMBAI, India — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday gave an impassioned defense of American demands that India and other countries do more to tackle terrorism and global warming.
Opening a three-day visit to India, Clinton sought to emphasize common interests, symbolized by the terrorist attacks in this seaside city in November that killed 166 people. “It must be stopped,” she said, adding that the United States cannot do it alone.
Part of the backdrop to Clinton’s visit is a sense of unease among Indians that the Obama administration is focusing more on its anti-terrorism campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan, at the expense of attention to the world’s largest democracy.
Showing no visible effects from elbow surgery in mid-June, Clinton met with business leaders, was serenaded by female entrepreneurs and participated in a televised discussion at a college on what’s wrong with education in India and the U.S.
It was the first event of her day, however, that underscored most strongly the central message she carried from Washington.
“The bottom line for me is, our government is committed in the fight against terrorism,” she told reporters at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower after meeting privately with a group of survivors of last year’s attacks on the Taj and an adjacent hotel.
“And we expect everyone” who shares the American desire to end violent extremism “to take strong action to prevent terrorism from taking root on their soil and making sure that terrorists are not trained and deployed — and we believe that around the world.”
Clinton also urged India to take a leading role on global warming and to avoid the missteps that occurred during U.S. industrialization.
“We are hoping a great country like India will not make the same mistakes,” she said.
