Clinton is scheduled to travel to India later this week -- her first visit as secretary of state -- which she has been saying would be the starting point of a new Indo-US relationship, which she fondly says 3.0.
"I am going to India Thursday night for a couple of days of consultation. We are starting a strategic dialogue between myself and the new external minister of foreign affairs," Clinton said in response to a question during a US Agency for International Development town hall meeting.
"You know climate change and clean energy are on there (on the agenda) but we need to be as specific as possible. So, any thoughts any of you have, please try to get them to me," Clinton said in response to a question on climate change.
Referring to the recently concluded Major Economies Forum meeting in Italy on climate change, she said the results were actually somewhat better than the Obama administration had expected. But with that they face the challenge of persuading India and China to figure out what they can do, and what obligations they will take on commensurate with their own development goals, she said.
"I think that there's a real role for development expertise in trying to come up with ideas -- clean energy technology transfers, small-scale clean energy projects that can be up scaled in ways that the Chinese and the Indians would find attractive; looking at targets that can be met with increasing aid over time," Clinton said.
She said there is got to be a lot of creative thought as to how this can be done. "Of course, it's true more generally than India and China, but they are going to be the "bell cows," if you will, you know, a lot of the developing countries will look to them."
Meanwhile, India's top diplomat in the United States said a partnership with the US is important to achieve its national developmental goals and argued that the transformation of the Indo-US relationship has been the most significant feature of New Delhi's foreign policy in decades.
'India considers a partnership with the US important for achieving its national development goals,' Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar
She noted that Indo-US relations have undergone a historic transformation over the course of the past decade.
Shankar said both US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have reiterated a commitment to continue the process of further strengthening ties, to build on the impressive progress of recent years to build what Secretary of State Clinton described as the third level of India-US relations.
'From the perspective of India, transformation of her relations with the US has been probably the most significant feature of its foreign policy over the past decade,' she said.
'We have nearly 30 forums of bilateral engagement, spanning virtually all aspects of human endeavour. Our political dialogue has grown to an unprecedented level, our strategic understanding has deepened and encompasses both our region and the world and our bilateral cooperation has entered new frontiers,' Shankar said.
Democratic India's rise will, Shankar said, in its own modest way, stand as an affirmation of the universal values of liberty, democracy, pluralism and freedom of enterprise; it would be a factor of stability, security and prosperity in the world, especially in Asia towards which the centre of gravity of future challenges and opportunities is shifting.
'India and the US share many of these concerns and challenges,' she said.
Observing that India's neighbourhood is the epicentre of global terrorism, Shankar said behind their different names, the terrorist groups have seamless links, shared ideologies and a common target in free and open societies.
'We have shared stakes in Afghanistan's evolution from instability, and Pakistan's transformation from a safe haven for extremism and terrorism, into stable, democratic, moderate and peaceful States,' she said.
Noting that the arc of proliferation around India has irrevocably altered Indo-US collective security, she said the intersection of proliferation and terrorism in India's neighbourhood presents a grave risk to all.
'India and the US have shared more deeply than many other countries the goals of non-proliferation and a nuclear weapons free world. The civil nuclear agreement has now created a platform for us to cooperate more on advancing our shared goals on non-proliferation,' the ambassador said.