Terrorism, trade to dominate Manmohan's US visit
Terrorism and trade will top the agenda when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh heads to Washington next week to meet US President George W Bush, officials said on Friday.
Terrorism and trade will top the agenda when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh heads to Washington next week to meet US President George W Bush, officials said on Friday.
Singh, who leaves India on Sunday, will also discuss with US leaders cooperation on civilian nuclear power and India's joint bid for permanent UN Security Council seats with Brazil, Germany and Japan.
Foreign Ministry officials said the three-day US visit will mark a new phase in relations between the United States and India, a population giant with rising economic and political clout.
A senior US official said in Washington on Thursday that Bush will use Singh's state visit to emphasise India's growing global influence.
"India is emerging as a global player, and we think on balance that's a good thing," the official told a small group of reporters on condition he not be named. "We have a lot to cooperate on."
In talks with Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Singh will stress the joint 'war on terrorism', following last week's London bombings and a deadly militant attack on a north Indian religious site days earlier.
"Terrorism will be high on the agenda," said Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, adding that Singh was carrying a "broad agenda, and New Delhi is hoping for a substantial outcome from the talks".
"There can be no segmentation in the fight against terrorism... India is going with a strong hand to Washington on the issue," he said. "Unless we stand united, how do you expect us to win the battle?"
Officials said the Indian delegation would present "evidence" that its rival Pakistan -- a key regional US ally since the September 11 attacks and 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan -- has Islamic militant camps on its soil.
New Delhi has long claimed, and Islamabad has long denied, that Pakistan trains Islamic rebels to fight in the Indian part of the divided state of Kashmir, where at least 44,000 people have died in an insurgency since 1989.
A top aide to the Prime Minister said: "Pakistan is a frontline ally of the US-led 'war on terror' but we have our concerns over the duplicity being practised by our neighbour."
US attention in South Asia focused heavily on Pakistan after the 9/11 attacks, but relations with India, on the opposite side of the United States in the Cold War, have been warming in recent years.
Last month the countries signed a 10-year defence agreement paving the way for joint weapons production, cooperation on missile defense and a possible lifting of US export controls for sensitive military technologies.
India, with its large pool of skilled, English-speaking workers, has become a major centre for US software companies and telephone call centres.
The United States is now India's biggest trading partner after the European Union, with two-way trade rising 17 per cent to 21 billion dollars last year.
The US official in Washington said: "What you're going to see, I think, is moving beyond just a bilateral relationship between the United States and India dealing with bilateral problems and more the United States and India in partnership dealing together with global issues."
Saran said the talks between Bush and Singh will cover a range of issues.
"The discussions will cover UN reforms, civilian nuclear energy cooperation and a host of other issues... The Indian government is attaching a great deal of importance," he told public broadcaster Doordarshan on Thursday.
Singh last visited the United States in September 2004, when he attended the United Nations General Assembly and first met Bush.
Rice, when she entered her post in March, made India her first stop.
At the time she pledged that Washington, which opposes a planned gas pipeline from Iran to India through Pakistan, would focus on an energy policy between the two countries.
Saran said on Thursday India would be looking to take nuclear energy cooperation "from dialogue to action".