In the aftermath of this week’s terrorist attack in India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has lowered expectations of his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, saying the epicentre of terrorism remains in Pakistan. Dr. Singh made these remarks after his meeting with US President Barack Obama at the White House Oval Office in which the two leaders touched on a range of subjects, from terrorism to trade and Syria to Afghanistan.
The Singh-Obama summit called upon Pakistan to work towards bringing the perpetrators of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks to justice. The two leaders strongly condemned the September 26 terrorist attack in Samba in Jammu and Kashmir.
In the joint statement issued after the meeting both the leaders reiterated their condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and reaffirmed their commitment to eliminate terrorist safe havens and infrastructure, and disrupting terrorist networks including Al-Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Toiba(LeT).
Making a wide ranging review of issues confronting peace and global economy, the two leaders said the United States and India should look to each other as partners of first resort in addressing global challenges.
The Leaders decided to significantly expand information sharing and intelligence cooperation to address threats to their nations, including strengthening the bilateral relationship to exchange information on known and suspected terrorists.
The Leaders called for expanding security cooperation between the United States and India to address 21st century challenges in the areas of counter-terrorism, cyber, space and global health security.
Both the leaders expressed satisfaction with the progress achieved so far in defence relations and emphasized the need for more intensive defense cooperation on both sides. They reaffirmed their desire to further strengthen defence trade cooperation endorsing a Joint Declaration on Defence Cooperation as a means of enhancing their partnership in defence technology transfer, joint research, co-development and co-production.
President Obama encouraged the further participation of US firms in partnering India's efforts to enhance its defence capacities. He also welcomed India’s decision to participate in the Rim of the Pacific, RIMPAC naval exercise to be hosted by U.S. Pacific Command in 2014.
Dr. Singh said that India is a poor country adding that our basic task is to improve the standard of living of our people, to get rid of mass poverty, ignorance and disease which still afflict millions and millions of people in India. He said that in this struggle India wants America to stand by its side.
In the civil nuclear power sector, President Obama and Prime Minister Singh noted that with government-to-government procedures agreed, commercial negotiations between U.S. companies and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India, NPCIL are proceeding well. They welcomed the announcement that NPCIL and U.S. Nuclear Company Westinghouse have concluded a Preliminary Contract to develop a nuclear power plant in Gujarat in India.
Building on this, the Leaders urged NPCIL and U.S. Companies Westinghouse and General Electric-Hitachi to expedite the necessary work to establish nuclear power plants in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to the full and timely implementation of the India-US Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.
