Obama attaches high priority
to stronger ties with India
By Arun Kumar
Washington,
Nov 14 (IANS) President-elect Barack Obama attaches high priority
to the further strengthening of relations between India and
the US, his special envoy to the G-20 Summit has told a key
aide of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Obama's
views on relationship with India were conveyed by former secretary
of state Madeleine Albright during a meeting Thursday with
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission,
and the Indian 'sherpa' for the G-20 Summit.
In
the G-20 summit format, while top leaders give a political
direction to the deliberations, it's their sherpas who carry
the heavy load of negotiations leading up to agreed formulations.
Ahluwalia,
with whom Manmohan Singh shares a strong professional and
personal rapport, was picked up by the prime minister for
this key role for his economic expertise.
Ahluwalia
accompanied by the Indian Ambassador to the US, Ronen Sen,
met Albright and Republican Congressman Jim Leach, who have
been nominated by Obama to meet foreign delegations at the
summit to open communication between the next US administration
and the visiting world leaders.
Ahluwalia
had an exchange of views with the Obama team on issues related
to the current international economic and financial crisis,
the Summit, and also bilateral relations, an Indian embassy
official said.
"Secretary
Albright conveyed that the President-elect attached high priority
to the further strengthening of relations between India and
the US," he said.
Obama,
who takes office Jan 20, has said that since a country can
only have one president at a time, he would not take part
in the summit hosted by Bush or meet foreign leaders on the
sidelines of the meeting.
Albright
served as secretary of state and US ambassador to the United
Nations under President Bill Clinton. Leach, a moderate Republican,
was a congressman from Iowa for 30 years, where he served
on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Obama
has named the bipartisan team as the "summit is an important
opportunity to hear from the leaders of many of the world's
largest economies," according to Obama's senior foreign
policy adviser Denis McDonough said.
Ahluwalia,
accompanied by Sen, also had a bilateral meeting with his
US counterpart Dan Price, assistant to the president for international
economic affairs, who is President George W. Bush's sherpa
at the summit.
"The
discussions focused on the issues before the Summit,"
an Indian official said.
Separately,
Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Ashok Chawla participated
in the meeting of the Finance Deputies involved in preparing
the summit outcome.
Indo-Asian
News Service
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