William Jefferson Clinton, forty-second President of the United States, joins CNN's Anjali Rao in a special half hour interview on the network's Talk Asia program.  President Clinton shares with Rao his advice to the incoming Obama administration, his wife's nomination as the next U.S.Secretary of State, and his likely involvement should Senator Hillary Clinton be confirmed.  He also talks about the concessions he has agreed to make so that she could be offered the job.

Bill Clinton's appearance on Talk Asia airs on Wednesday 10th December at 2200, Thursday 11th December at 1200, Saturday 13th December at 2330 and Monday 15th December at 1100 on CNN International.

**All airtimes shown are for Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Taipei
(For New Delhi minus 2.5 hours, Bangkok and Jakarta minus 1 hour, Sydney add 3 hours and Wellington add 5 hours)

Below are selected quotes from the interview and attached the images for immediate use. 

* Photo credit: CNN/Adrian Seah.

*CNN's TALK ASIA must be referenced when using any of the below quotes: 

SELECTED QUOTES

On Hillary Clinton finding out about being considered for Secretary of State:

Clinton: I think she was shocked, she first read about it in the newspaper speculation (AR: Really?) Yeah. It was a very wise decision by the president elect and I think she made the right decision but for her it was hard. She adored being in the senate.

On Involvement in decisions Hillary Clinton will have to make as far as foreign policy is concerned:

Clinton: I think my involvement will be what our involvement with each other's work has always been that is all the years I was a Governor and President, I talk to her about everything. I found her advice invaluable and I'm sure we'll talk about all this I mean I really care about a lot of these profound challenges that our country and the world are facing.  But the decisions will have to be ultimately the President-elect Obama's decisions to make about what we are going to do, what our policies are going to be and she will be part of the team formulating those policies and carrying them out. I'll just try to be a helpful sounding board to her but I don't think I will do anymore than that. Unless he (President-elect Barack Obama) asks me to do something specific which I'm neither looking for nor closed to.

On Concessions:

Clinton: I think that virtually everything I have agreed to do although it's all over and above what the law requires is quite appropriate. For example if she is going to be Secretary of State and I operate globally and I have people who contribute to these efforts globally I think that it's important to make it totally transparent; say who the donors are and let people know that there's no connection to the decisions made by America's National Security team including the Secretary of State. So everything else that's part of this I have no problem with. I think it's a good idea. I think what the Obama transition team was concerned about is not that there's something wrong with having CGI in Asia or Latin America for that matter but that if you have an event like this overseas and the sponsors are largely non-American they don't even want the appearance which I can see is important, the appearance of this is important that someone is supporting this because they want to be viewed favorably by the Secretary of State and the White House.

On the U.S. Economy:

Clinton: I don't think we can turn it around in less than a year because too much wealth has already disappeared. The stock market might come back in less than a year but the shrinkage , it's already occurred in investment wealth, is going to play itself out in the real economy. I don't think it will take longer than three years. So I would say if they make really really good decisions, and I think they will, probably somewhere between fifteen months and two years we'll be back humming again.