Congrats on your leadership, Bush tells Manmohan

The two leaders spoke in unison on strengthening the bilateral ‘strategic relationship’ after Singh drove more than 100 km from Sapporo at dawn to meet Bush at Hotel Windsor on the picturesque Mt Poromoi in Japan’s Hokkaido island, where the G-8 leaders are meeting for their annual summit.

The body language of the two leaders, the warm handshake they exchanged and highly appreciative words they used for each other clearly reflected the commitment both sides have in seeing the nuclear deal go through fast, given the time constraints.

“We talked about the nuclear deal–how important that is for our respective countries,” was all Bush said in clear reference to the agreement the two leaders had reached on civilian nuclear agreement in July 2005.

Bush described the meeting ‘as a conversation among friends’ and added, “I respect the Prime Minister a lot. I also respect India a lot. I think it’s very important that the United States continues to work with our friend to develop not only a new strategic partnership, but a relationship that addresses some of the world’s problems.”

At the joint press meet with Bush, the Prime Minister spoke of the ‘progress’ made between the two countries in several areas including nuclear, defence, space and education.

Reciprocating US President’s compliments, Singh praised Bush’s ‘magnificent’ contribution to the bilateral relationship between the two countries which, he said, had moved ‘handsomely’ forward in all areas since their first meeting in July, 2005.

“Our relationship has never been in such good shape as it is today. It is the intention of my government, as I believe it is also the will of the Indian people particularly the thinking segments of the people that in this increasingly interdependent world that we live in whether it is the question of climate change or managing the global economy India and US must work together shoulder to shoulder, and that is what is going to happen”.

Singh said the two countries were working together in multilateral institutions for the success of the Doha round of WTO negotiations.

“And I am very pleased with the state of our relationship, which has truly acquired the characteristic of a genuine strategic partnership,” he said after the meeting but the two leaders did not take any questions.”

The Singh-Bush meeting came on the day the Left parties finally pulled the plug on the nuclear issue after the Prime Minister said that India will ‘very soon’ approach the UN atomic watchdog IAEA for a safeguards agreement, a step crucial to operationalising the deal.

Bush said the two had discussed how the their countries could work together to grow each other’s economies and at the same time be responsible towards environment.