Obama, Singh to meet in Toronto; to discuss a range of issues

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Jun 24 (PTI) US President Barack Obama
would meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday on
the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Toronto, during which the
two leaders would discuss a range of issues, a senior Obama
administration official said Thursday.
"I think this will be an important opportunity for the
(US) President to continue to foster the close relationship
that he has with Prime Minister Singh," a senior
administration official told reporters.
Obama will be meeting Singh soon after his meeting
with the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
"I think the President has coordinated very closely
with India through the G-20 and also, on a bilateral basis,
recently had an excellent strategic dialogue here in the
United States with the Indians," the official said.
Interestingly on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit,
Obama would be having six bilateral meetings - and all with
Asia Pacific countries - Japan, South Korea, China, Indonesia,
India and Australia.
"US leadership in Asia is a very important issue to
the president. It's important to our economic future. It's
important to our export goal of doubling exports. It's
important to a range of security priorities including
nonproliferation, counter-terrorism and, of course, the
ongoing situation on the Korean Peninsula," the official said.
"We have, of course, important presidential travel
later in the year to Asia. So I think it represents the
priority that the president places on the region," he said.
Earlier, visiting Minister of Commerce and Industry
Anand Sharma too told reporters that Obama would meet Singh on
the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Toronto.
"Prime Minister would be travelling for the G-20, he
will be meeting President Obama," he said.
This would be the first meeting between the two
leaders after Nuclear Security Summit in Washington in April.
The meeting would also give Obama and Singh an
opportunity to review the series of high level talks between
the top officials of the two countries including.
This includes the first ever Cabinet-level Indo-US
Strategic Dialogue here early this month, wherein Obama
himself delivered remarks at a reception hosted by Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton in honour of External Affairs
Minister S M Krishna.
Reconstituted by Obama and Singh in November last
year, the Indo-US CEOs Forum had its second meeting on
Wednesday.
Sharma along with Union Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee were here to attend this meeting. They also held
bilateral talks with their American counterparts. MORE PTI