US President Obama will visit next year India, which he described as a rising, responsive global power next year. Addressing a press conference at the White House after 25-minute long talks with visiting Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, he stated deepening of the ties between the two countries is ‘my priority’.
But the press conference was a disappointment from the Indian perspective with no big ticket announcements and with Obama not forthcoming categorically on Pakistan’s role as the epicentre of terrorism, notwithstanding his reference to the blunt speech of Hillary Clinton on Pakistan soil and the remark that Pakistan should act against terrorists based on its soil lest they turn against it itself.
Both sides, he said, have agreed ‘our law-enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies will work even closer including sharing information’ on terrorism.
On the civilian nuclear deal which was signed during the Bush presidency, Obama was short on specifics but said ‘I reaffirm our commitment to Manmohan Singh to fully implementing the civil nuclear deal’.
Singh said in their discussion there was agreement that the nuclear deal should be operationalised soon. But the outstanding issues which are in the nature of minor irritants needed to be addressed, according to officials. President Obama promised to address these details expeditiously but no time frame is being talked about.
Singh-Obama talks covered Afghanistan situation, progress relating to climate change issues and India’s participation in the next year's nuclear summit, the US will hold.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh started his State Visit to the US with an elaborate welcome ceremony and a banquet at the White House, held wide ranging talks with President Obama on Tuesday. Obama was high on sentiment and less on substance, though he began saying it was fitting that Prime Minister Singh should be the first State visitor of his administration and referred to the ties that bind the countries as also the need to look forward to forging a much more closer relationship.
Singh and Obama talks covered familiar issues of terrorism, and situation in south Asia that includes Pakistan and Afghanistan and new issues of substances that range from climate change, to economic and business relations and ties as also the recent Obama visit to China which created some disquiet in Delhi.
Before entering his summit at the White House, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the US Council for Foreign Relations that India has taken note of ‘certain amount of assertiveness’ by China and said he did not ‘fully understand’ the reasons for its actions. The reference was to Beijing’s rather provocative statements on Dalai Lama’s visit to Tawang and on Arunachal Pradesh, which India asserts is an integral part of its territory.
On the India-Pak relations, Singh indicated India's readiness to resume dialogue with Pakistan provided it abjures terrorism and comes to the table with ‘good faith and sincerity’.
‘It is my solemn hope that India and Pakistan can together move forward to write a new chapter in the history of the sub-continent...I have said that we are ready to pick up the threads of the dialogue, including on issues related to Jammu and Kashmir’, the Prime Minister remarked. He charged Pakistan with ‘selective’ approach in the fight against terrorism, adding that ‘I don’t know with whom’ he has to talk in Pakistan.
-Asian Tribune-
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