Frankfurt, Sept. 25 (ANI): The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, arrived here on Wednesday enroute to the United States where he will attend the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

During his weeklong visit to the US, Dr. Singh will hold talks with US President Barack Obama in Washington DC and attend the UN General Assembly in New York, besides having a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.

The Prime Minister earlier in the day said US is a long-term partner in India’s development efforts, and in fostering a global environment that is conducive to our growth.

“For India, the U.S. remains a key source of technology, investment, innovation and resources, and one of the most important destinations for our goods and services. We have productive and deepening partnerships in trade and investment, defence, counter-terrorism, intelligence, internal security, cyber security, civil nuclear energy, environment, health, higher education, space, science and technology and culture,” said Dr. Singh in his departure statement released in New Delhi before embarking on a five-day visit to the United States.

“People-to-people contacts are a strong feature of our engagement. We have also launched development partnership in third countries,” he added.

Referring to the “intensive high-level bilateral visits, Dr. Singh said: “Over the past decade, our relationship with the United States, which is one of our most important relationships, has transformed into a global strategic partnership.”

“The intensive, high-level bilateral visits over the last few months reflect the strong momentum of our engagement. We have also registered impressive progress in our cooperation across the full spectrum of the relationship,” he added.

He said he was looking forward “to discussing a broad range of global and regional developments, and how we can work together to advance our shared interests”.

During his visit to New York, Dr.Singh will also have bilateral meetings with the leaders of some of the neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh and Nepal. (ANI)



YOUR COMMENT