It’s as good as it gets: Sinha after meeting Powell

US secretary of State Colin Powell and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha met over lunch today at the US State Department and said the...

US secretary of State Colin Powell and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha met over lunch today at the US State Department and said their talks were highly productive. The two were expected to move quickly on the issues listed by US President George W. Bush in his statements.

Expressing hope that it would be possible for both sides to start discussing the issues ‘‘in the near future’’, Sinha said ‘‘the Prime Minister and President have given a broad policy framework through their statements. Now it is up to the two foreign offices…to start working on their implementation.’’

Describing his talks with American leaders as ‘‘very successful’’, Sinha said bilateral relations between the two nations have never been better. ‘‘I am very happy that I have had a very productive visit to Washington… Things are looking good.’’

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The External Affairs Minister also said developments in the subcontinent, developments with relation to the SAARC summit, India-Pakistan relations and Indo-US ties came up for discussion with the US leaders. Other issues, including the situation in Afghanistan, Iraq, developments in Iran and in W Asia were also discussed, he added.

Powell said the two sides have a strategic conversation taking place at various levels. ‘‘We want to get our counter-terrorism discussions underway again… There is no area of dialogue that we are not pursuing, and pursuing in a very, very profitable way.’’

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