Ahead of the 25th anniversary of Kanishka bombing,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conveyed to his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper concerns about the activities of anti-India extremist groups operating from that country. Singh also underlined the need for monitoring such outfits. The Prime Minister conveyed the concerns during a meeting here and the Canadian leader assured that his government would do its best in this regard. Singh noted that the 25th anniversary of Kanishka bombing,carried out by Khalistani groups,would be observed in June,External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash told reporters while briefing on the meeting between the two Prime Ministers. The Indian Prime Minister remarked "there was continued concern about the activities of extremist groups" operating from Canada and hoped that their activities would be monitored by the Canadian side. Harper assured that his government would do their best and the two sides agreed that the officials would remain in touch,Prakash said. All the 329 people on board the Kanishka Air India aircraft were killed in the mid-air blast on June 23,1985 during the flight from Montreal to London. Singh's expression of concern comes amidst reports that Khalistani groups were trying to regroup again. During the 30-minute meeting,Singh and Harper also referred to the inter-governmental agreement on civil nuclear cooperation concluded in November. They expressed happiness over it and hoped that the agreement could be finalised and signed soon. The two leaders also reviewed cooperation in trade and economic area. They recalled that an MoU had been signed between the two countries in November last year on setting up of a joint study group to explore the possibilities of concluding a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and expressed the hope that the report of the joint working group would be available by May this year. The two countries had also set in November a trade target of USD 15 billion to be achieved in five years. There was substantive exchange of views on the forthcoming G-20 Summit to be hosted by Canada in June which Singh is expected to attend,Prakash said. Harper sought Singh's views on the agenda of the summit and its focus. Singh observed that the G-20 framework had helped overcome the immediate financial crisis,but now it was time to move ahead to deal with the larger issue of global imbalances and reforms of the international financial institutions. He also outlined the need for a stable and predictable regime of capital flows especially for the developing countries. He spoke about the nature of the Indian economy,its strong fundamentals,the growth chart that has been charted out,the spokesman said. Singh told Harper about the expectations that within a couple of years that India will return to a growth rate of nine percent and even get into a double digit growth rate. For this,he said,a conducive and enabling international involvement was required. Singh particularly underlined that India was not contributing to global imbalances "as we are not a mercantile economy". Prime Minister Harper spoke about the Canadian interest in using G-20 to develop a framework to encourage a balanced and sustainable growth internationally. Singh and Harper also exchanged views on the important issue of climate change and the prognosis of the next conference which would be held in Mexico towards the end of this year,Prakash said.
