NEW DELHI -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's five-day trip to India marked the formal launch of a full-fledged bilateral exchange between Washington and New Delhi, one that will set the tone for the trajectory of India's future engagement with the Obama administration.
As expected, Clinton's agenda covered the five pillars of the Indo-U.S. relationship: defense cooperation, science and technology, energy and climate change, education and trade. But the visit left the impression that it was crafted to be more symbolic than substantial, leading many to believe that Clinton was working according to a script, rather than as a much-vaunted "friend of India."
From her decision to kick off her trip in Mumbai, rather than the national capital of New Delhi, to her stay at the Taj Mahal Hotel where Pakistani terrorists had unleashed terror last year to her politically correct declarations about climate control, Pakistan and terrorism, Clinton presented India with a friendly but unrelenting interlocutor on many counts.