India to get more US diplomats

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday said the US will send more diplomats to countries like India.

This, Dr Rice said, is part of 'transformational diplomacy'.

"We will begin to shift several hundred of our diplomatic positions to new critical posts for the 21st Century. We will begin by moving 100 positions from Europe and Washington, DC, to countries like China, India, Nigeria and Lebanon," Dr Rice said in a speech at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

"Additional staffing will make an essential difference," she added.

Noting that emerging powers like India, China, Brazil and Egypt and South Africa are increasingly shaping the course of history, she said that the new frontlines 'of our diplomacy' are appearing more clearly in transitional countries.

"Our current global posture does not really reflect that fact. For instance, we have nearly the same number of State Department personnel in Germany, a country of 82 million people, and in India, a country of one billion people," Rice said.

'It is clear that America must begin to reposition diplomatic forces around the world,' she said.