28 June 2010, TORONTO: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama on Sunday held their second substantive dialogue in two months, during which they are understood to have discussed terrorism, global economy and other issues of mutual concern.

Singh and Obama met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit here and are believed to have discussed the situation in the region.

This was the the first meeting between the two leaders after they met and reviewed bilateral ties on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington in April.

Ahead of the meeting, Obama told reporters: "Whenever the Indian Prime Minister speaks, the whole world listens to him."

During the meeting, the two leaders are also understood to have discussed about the global economic recovery and the G20 Summit. At the Summit, India and the US had cautioned against winding up of the government funding.

The Prime Minister said a "very warm welcome" awaits Obama, the First Lady Michelle and their children when they visit India.

He said during the visit, Obama can see for himself what India is trying to do, the difficulties of managing social and economic transformation in the framework of a democracy committed to the rule of law, committed to all fundamental human freedoms.

"I think that's what India seeks to achieve," he said. Obama also recalled the State Visit of Singh in November, when the two leaders decided to launch a Strategic Dialogue between the two countries.

"...we instituted what we termed a strategic partnership that involves all of our ministers at the highest levels working together to try to find ways to enhance commercial ties, security ties, coordination on critical multilateral issues like climate change," he said.

"And as a consequence, (External Affairs) Minister S M Krishna led a delegation to Washington to follow up, and working with Secretary (of State Hillary) Clinton, conducted some very high-level talks. I had the opportunity to participate in that dialogue," the US President said.

Obama said the two countries would continue to see how businesses of both countries can get to work together and then generating recommendations to "each of us in terms of how we can improve ties between the United States and India."
 

0 Comments