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Setting the stage for the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W Bush, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held talks with External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh on a wide range of bilateral issues.
Rice, who called on Singh at his hotel in Washington, DC, yesterday, said President Bush was looking forward to his meeting with the prime minister. Describing the meeting as "a very good one", Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran told reporters that basically what "she (Rice) did was to set the stage for the important meeting between President Bush and the prime minister".
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They reveiwed the progress that had been made on the joint statement which, Saran said, was more or less finalized.
The agenda before the two leaders, he said, will be a broad one. "It would be a mistake to look at one single peg on which to hang the visit. One should look at this visit as one in which a number of issues that have emerged in Indo-US relations will become much more wideranging, much more multifaceted than they have been for some time," he said.
On the political side, he said as plural democracies, both are particularly concerned about the vulnerability of democracies to terrorism.
"The prime minister on his part will certainly put across the Indian view that this is a worldwide scourge that requires a global response. There can be no segmentation in this struggle," the foreign secretary said.
"There will be nothing in the joint statement on Kashmir," he said . "Of course there will be one important aspect of it, namely terrorism and the global fight against terrorism," Saran said, adding, "If the President wishes to know how the India-Pakistan peace process is proceeding while discussing a whole range of regional and global issues, they will be talking about it."
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On the nuclear issue, he said, "One should not make the mistake of trying to hang a visit of this kind on just one single thing. As far as nuclear energy cooperation is concerned, this is a continuing process.
"What we really are going to achieve through this visit," he said, is affirmation at the highest level that the two countries are prepared to engage in civilian nuclear energy cooperation and to work out a mechanism through which this is to be accomplished.
He said there was already a framework agreement on defence issues as a result of the visit of Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee to the US. "The joint statement by Bush and Singh will perhaps refer to that as the basis for carrying forward the cooperation between the two countries in the defence field."
However, the major focus of the visit will be the economic aspect. "This is a key element of the visit."
Through the mechanism of the CEOs Forum, the two countries will be looking at ways in which US investment, trade and a number of very important economic elements could be promoted.
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Saran said the very fact that there is going to be an announcement of the establishment of the CEOs Forum, with some of the best known names in business on both sides, and also the fact that the composition of the US delegation to the CEOs Forum is at the White House initiative, are indicative of the importance that is attached at the highest level to really energizing the economic relationship between the two countries across the board.
The prime minister, said Saran, will be able to point to a very impressive record in terms of economic reform in India. The promotion of economic and trade relations, the record of the government in terms of having delivered on a number of very important economic reform items stand out. It is evidence of "how far we have been able to travel despite whatever political constraints some people see."
The US, he pointed out, is one of the leading sources of high technology, and the meeting would take India's technology relationship with the US forward. Science and technology is another area of focus.
On space, he said there already was a working group, and "we will be looking at how we are going to carry this forward."
Saran said the two sides would discuss many ideas, including cooperation in terms of commercial space launches. "This is something we have been discussing for sometime. These are precisely the kind of things we would be discussing and a working group will try and take some ideas forward."
Asked about Security Council membership for India, he said the US position is very well known. "I don't think we need to dwell on that much further. They have stated they believe the international institutions have to adjust to the emergence of India as a major political and economic influence.
"In New Delhi they have said there are certain criteria which the US believes are important for permanent membership," and "for those criteria, as far as I can see, India qualifies, but at the moment the United States is not prepared to go beyond that."