By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington: Ahead of his Tuesday summit with President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expressed the hope that the two sides can work together to build an enduring partnership based on equality and mutual understanding.
“We are strategic partners. We have good relations. But there is the new administration in America. We are now in our second five-year term. So, it is appropriate that I should renew our partnership,” he told Newsweek in an interview in New Delhi.
The transcript of the interview has been posted on the external affairs ministry website.
“I sincerely hope that we can work together with President Obama and his administration to build an enduring partnership based on equality and mutual understanding for promoting greater security and sustained development in the world,” Manmohan Singh said.
“That is, to put it succinctly,” he said when asked if that was what he wanted to accomplish when he meets Obama.
Asked to spell out how he saw the possibility of India and the US cooperating in the future, the prime minister said: “Well, there are several components of sustained development. There is the energy cooperation – we would like to strengthen energy cooperation with the United States – clean coal technologies, renewable energy resources.”
“Similarly, there is concern for food security. We would like to have a second green revolution in our country,” he said noting, “In the first green revolution technologies which were by-product of the US public sector played a major role in transforming Indian agriculture.”
“We need another green revolution to carry forward that process still further. Therefore, cooperation in the field of agriculture, cooperation in the field of science and technology, cooperation in the field of health, ensuring cooperation between our two countries in dealing with pandemics.”
“These are all the concerns that I have, and I propose to share these concerns with President Obama and hope that we both can reaffirm our commitment to carry forward these processes,” he said.