New Delhi: Former US president Bill Clinton talks about emerging Indo-US ties, Clinton Foundation's HIV fight in India, the nuclear threat from Iran and other issues an exclusive interview with Vidya Shankar Aiyar of CNN-IBN.
Vidya Shankar: President Clinton, welcome to the programme. You know, there is the bird flu that has affected India also now. Did you have eggs for breakfast today?
Bill Clinton: I didn't today, but I often do.
Vidya Shankar: Is your foundation doing any work with regard to this problem? You have done a lot of work for HIV-AIDS, what about infectious diseases? You have won an award as well for this.
Bill Clinton: We haven't so far, because I don't think at the present time there is anything for us to do. I think right now, what we have got to do is get the medication up to sufficient volumes and work out the distribution network.
So, far, everybody has been really worried about that and I consider that to be a very healthy thing.
I think that the terrific worries that we have about bird flu and the enormous publicity that every known case gets, whether it is in Romania or here or anywhere else, gives us a chance to avoid repeating the great influenza of 1918-1920,which killed somewhere between 2500 million people. We can do that. But there is nothing yet from my foundation to do.
Vidya Shankar: Your foundation has been doing a lot of work for HIV-AIDS and now you are here in India with this programme. You have visited the Cipla factories in Goa and you have been walking around the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. What is your reaction to having visited here now?
Bill Clinton: Well, most of our partners in providing the least expensive high quality retroviral medicine in the world are Indians. There is Cipla, Ranbaxy, Hetro and one South African partner Aspen. Increasingly, with our testing work we have other partners in Europe and even in the United States.
But the core of this is to getting the entire retroviral medicines at the lowest possible price. I saw this incredibly modern Cipla factory yesterday, where they are making three pills in one - triple therapy treatment - as well as separate pills, and where they are making for a lot of the medicines for children, which is a new interest of mine.
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It is appalling that we lose half a million young children a year to AIDS and almost none of them are getting medicines. So, I'm trying to take care of fixing that now.
Vidya Shankar: You are also trying to address the problem of numbers. In India, thanks to your foundation, about 25,000 people are now getting treatment. And you are hoping that that number will rise to about a hundred thousand?
Bill Clinton: Your government agency wants to take that to a hundred thousand. I know that there are other people who are buying treatment on their own.
But I think soon, you could actually get to bigger numbers than that if we can keep the prices low and get the networks out there. You have to have people who are trying to go out into the rural areas.
For example, to give the test to get diagnosed, to get the care networks. You can't just drop medicines on the people, they have to know what is involved and then they have to have ongoing care.
Vidya Shankar: President Bush is going to be visiting India, your successor. In many ways, he has also not gone forward with some of the plans that you proposed. For instance, climate change is one of the ideas that the Bush administration has not gone ahead with, but it has gone ahead with building up relations with India. You set the tone during your Presidency.
Now, India and America are trying to forge a new relationship. There might be co-operation on the nuclear front, you tried very hard to try to get India sign on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty during your time, and we didn't at that time. Where do you see the relationship between India and the US going?
Bill Clinton: First of all, I would say that for all the political differences that I have had with the President and the administration, I have a good personal relationship with them. And I have personally thanked him for continuing to strengthen ties with India.
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I thought that it was one of the most important things that happened. In my second term as President that we began to work together and I am pleased that it has continued during the Bush administration.
I am also very grateful that he has provided more financial assistance to fight HIV-AIDS. So, those were the two things that were together on and I am delighted that he is coming here.
We have a whole different take on this non-proliferation issue and so I think that whatever happens, it is more likely than not that the nuclear agreement that the Bush administration wants to make with India will be worked out. I don't think either side, however, should judge the success of the President's coming trip on the time table for working that out.
Vidya Shankar: What do they base it on then?
Bill Clinton: First of all, there is, even more than before, a qualitatively different and broader relationship between United States and India. That has been building up for years. That's going to go well in the future.
We are going to have unprecedented economic cooperation, we are going to have unprecedented personal, educational exchanges, we are going to have a level of security cooperation that we have never known before. And hopefully, we will be friends in the context of an ever-more integrated South Asia, where the past problems between India and Pakistan will diminish over time.
And increasing economic, political and security cooperation within South Asia will increase. I think we are key partner as on the big picture here.
This nuclear proposal whether you like it or don't like it or have reservations about it, it shouldn't be the lynchpin of this relationship.
It's too big, it's too important to the world. So you know, if it gets worked out fine, before the President's visit. If doesn't, it will get worked out sooner or later. So, we should see this as a very positive thing. Just that he is coming and we are broadening out friendship.
Vidya Shankar:I know President Clinton, you are on a very tight schedule. So I just ask you two very quick questions and responses if you don't mind. One is do you ever see United States of America taking military action against Iran on the nuclear issue?
Bill Clinton: Well, I think that's one of those things the lesser said about the better. I have been there. I have been President and I have made these decisions.
I think, this is what I think.
It's the toughest problem we face right now. Because the Iranians are united in believing that they should have the right to develop a nuclear quest. This time even Indians do. And they don't see themselves as a threat like everybody else.
But we see in their Government, based on their statements and policies, they are an aggressive supporter of terror - through Hizbollah and others. We see them as a destabilising factor, potentially.
So, we want to find a peaceful way to resolve this. And the Russians have offered a constructive solution to reprocess the material in Russia. Europeans are working hard.
Look at Iran. If we could develop the positive relationship with them, we could build a much more stable and positive Middle East. So, I am not going to comment on the options.
President is going to toughen his problems whether me or anybody else is talking about it.
Vidya Shankar:Okay, Mr President. Finally, are you enjoying your job now with the Clinton Foundation more than your presidency?
Bill Clinton: I can't say more. I liked being the President, I liked. I liked even the bad days. You know it was an important opportunity. But I love what I am doing now. I think that as long as I can help people solve problems and save lives, how can I complain? It's a wonderful life.
Vidya Shankar: President Clinton, thank you very much for being with me.
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