New York Times (May 7, 2012)
In Kolkata, Clinton Talks Indian Retail and Iranian Oil
By HEATHER TIMMONS
Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, arrives for a
meeting with Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, Kolkata,
West Bengal, May 7, 2012.
The U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, told a town hall
meeting in Kolkata on Monday that she planned to discuss opening
India’s retail sector to foreign investment with Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee and that India should do even more to reduce its dependence on
Iranian oil.
Mrs. Clinton also said she was a fan of the Bengali poet and composer
Rabindranath Tagore, and joked that she and her husband are
argumentative, much like Bengalis.
The secretary of state is on a two-day trip to India and is scheduled
to meet later Monday with Ms. Banerjee, who has been one of the chief
opponents of a proposal to allow multi-brand retailers like Walmart to
enter India. “There is an enormous amount of experience that can be
brought to India on supply-chain management, on developing
relationships with small producers,” Mrs. Clinton said Monday morning.
She spoke at a meeting at La Martiniere School for Girls, a private
school established in 1836, in a session moderated by NDTV journalist
Barkha Dutt. “I know how difficult it is for women to be elected
anywhere,” Mrs. Clinton told the crowd of hundreds of students and
others meant to represent a cross-section of Kolkata. “When I meet a
woman who has broken through those barriers, we share a common bond of
having gone through the fire of electoral politics.”
The primary purchasers of Iranian oil — India, China, Japan and the
European countries — “are being asked to lower their supply to keep
pressure on Iran,” she said, while Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other
suppliers are putting more oil into the market. There is an
international consensus that these sanctions are working, she said.
“India understands the importance of trying to use diplomacy to resolve
these difficult threats and is certainly working toward lowering their
purchases of Iranian oil,” she said. “We hope they will do even more.”
The Secretary of State’s visit coincides with a visit from Iranian
businessmen to New Delhi and Mumbai. She flies to New Delhi Monday
night, where she will meet with officials ahead of the “U.S. – India
Strategic Dialogue” in Washington, D.C. June 13. On Tuesday, Iranian
businessmen and Indian trade groups will have a press conference in New
Delhi
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