Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will hold summit level talks with US President Barack Obama in Washington today. Counter terrorism, civil nuclear cooperation, trade and investment are likely to figure prominently during their talks at the Oval Office in the White House. Briefing media persons in Washington, India's Ambassador to the US, Nirupama Rao said, the issue of counter terrorism is very high on the Prime Minister's agenda for the summit level talks with Mr Obama. She said, the US is well aware of India's concerns about activities of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and its founder Hafiz Saeed which should be perceived as a global terror combine.
The Prime Minister arrived in Washington last night on a 5-day visit to the United States to attend the UN General Assembly. He was received at the airport by US Deputy Chief of Protocol Rosemarie Paul and the Indian Ambassador to the US, Nirupama Rao among others. The US Senate unanimously passed a resolution welcoming Dr. Manmohan Singh to the US, acknowledging his significant contribution to the growth of Indo-US ties.
After his arrival in Washington, Dr. Singh said the US is one of our most important strategic partners and during President Obama's regime, India has taken several steps to widen and deepen this partnership in diverse fields.
Our correspondent reports that this will be the third summit level discussions between the two leaders.The first such meeting took place in 2009 when Dr. Singh visited the US as the first state guest of President Obama indicating enough the high strategic importance Washington attached to New Delhi. President Obama’s visit next year provided further momentum to the US-India relationship. A whole gamut of issues including terrorism, regional and international security, strategic partnership in areas like trade and commerce, education, health, energy and many more are likely to come up for discussions during this meeting. It is expected that the relationship between two countries will be further strengthened as an outcome of this summit being held in the beautiful city of Washington.
The Prime Minister will leave for New York tomorrow to attend the UN General Assembly. On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Dr Singh will hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from many countries including Pakistan. During his meeting with Mr Nawaz Sharif on Sunday, Dr Manmohan Singh is expected to raise the issue of cross border terrorism prominently.
External Affairs Minister, Salman Khurshid said, India and Pakistan must write their own script and should not play into the hands of anyone. He also favoured a direct dialogue between the two countries to sort out differences.
