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NEW DELHI: India has attached great importance to the visit of US President Barack Obama to the country starting from Saturday. Speaking to media persons here on Wednesday, the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Prithviraj Chauhan said that the relations between New Delhi and Washington were growing very well and in right direction.
He said that the United States and India, two of the largest democracies share same values and therefore, there is natural affinity between them. Chauhan said that the cooperation between the two countries whether it was nuclear energy or science and technology or trade which was initiated in 2005 have been progressing.
“A number of agreements are expected to be signed during the visit including one on Science and Technology” the minister said. On civil nuclear energy cooperation, he said that there is nothing left at the inter-governmental level and it is now negotiations at the commercial level. He said that the civil liability law and the Indo-US agreement is on track and whatever India committed has been fulfilled and India wants cooperation this areas to grow.
The US President will be arriving in Mumbai on Saturday for a three day State visit to India. He will have talks with the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Monday. He will be addressing a joint-sitting of the both Houses of Parliament on Monday evening.
India’s Ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar, has also said the US is undertaking a India-specific review of its policy and the two sides are working on this issue to fine-tune it to India’s benefit. She said India expects a breakthrough on the issue of relaxation of US export control regime on dual-use items when President Barack Obama visits New Delhi this week.
Meanwhile in an in an interview in Washington, President Obama described India as a corner stone of US engagement in Asia and said that his visit will give an opportunity to take the Indo-US cooperation to a new level. Answering criticism that Washington had not leaned enough on Pakistan to deal with terrorism emanating from its soil, President Obama asked Pakistan to bring to book transparently, fully and urgently those responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks. He said that the United States had taken every opportunity to make it clear to Pakistan that confronting violent extremism of all sorts is in its own interests and in the interest of regional stability.
