Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

Opening Remarks of PM at US Press Conference

"Thank you for coming this evening. I am happy to have this chance to share my impressions about this visit with you. I believe this has been a very productive visit and it was useful for me to start this person interaction with several important leaders - both in government and with leaders of industry and trade.

In my very brief halt in the UK, I had several substantive meetings. I met PM Blair and a joint statement that takes the India-UK partnership to a higher level - one of comprehensive strategic partnership was agreed and issued. This provides a basis for closer exchanges between our Governments - we envisage annual summit level interaction - and a regular and sustainable development, trade and economic co-operation, possible co-operation in India's nuclear energy programme and so forth. You all heard PM Blair's very categorical remarks about the UK supporting India's candidature for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Mr. Balir also told me that he is intent on finding ways for a closer association between the G-8 and India (and China).

In the UK I met an impression group of CEOs, economic writers and analysts, in an interactive session in which we addressed all their concerns about economic reforms. To my mind there should be no doubt at all about the fact that the economic reforms are going to continue and that this is a process which is irreversible. However, if there are concerns about this in people's minds, I am happy to engage and tell them about our intentions. I believe I was able to do so in my meetings in the UK.

Since my arrival here in New York there have been several equally important meetings and events that I would like to recall about briefly. My visit here was essentially for me to participate in the General Debate in the UNGA. As you know I did so yesterday. The broad themes, that I emphasised were India's commitment to multilateralism and to its embodiment - the UN, the process of UN reform - to enable the body to refashion itself to become relevant to our times and in relation to this I laid out the reasons why I believe India should be a permanent member of the UN Security Council. I underlined our willingness to take on all the obligations and responsibilities that befit our standing and role in the world community.

I want to underline the importance of a meeting that Prime Minister Koizumi had arranged which I attended, along with President Lula of Brazil and Deputy Prime Minister Fischer of Germany. This G-4 meeting was a very significant statement of intent by our four countries to participate in the UN reform process on the basis of a mutual understanding to support each other for permanent membership of the Security Council. We cannot of course determine the outcome of this process but we shall stay engaged.

I had a useful meeting with the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in which we discussed the UN reform process and I stressed the importance of this being carried forward in a purposeful way.

On the bilateral side, my meeting with President Bush on September 21 was a very important event in my programme here. He has made a personal contribution to strengthening India-US relations and I appreciate his meeting me in the midst of his election preoccupations. I conveyed to him our interest in strengthening our relationship, particularly its strategic dimension. The conclusion of Phase I of NSSP just prior to our meeting underlined this message.

While our discussions covered many issues, the most important were our common commitment to combat terrorism, WMD proliferation and related global threats. My endeavour which I believe is reciprocated fully by President Bush, is to build a partnership of co-operation and trust between our two countries. By doing so, I believe that we would realize the enormous potential of our bilateral ties while working together to make the world a better place.

Our conviction that there are new opportunities to strengthen our economic relationship was reflected in my meeting with American CEOs at the New York Stock Exchange. As you are all aware, I saw in it an opportunity to emphasise India's credentials as a very attractive investment destination. My discussions with India-American CEOs yesterday were also very productive in terms of ideas to give a more positive orientation to our plans for reform and growth. I sought to take advantage of their experience and creativity to address issues facing us today in India. I proposed that they should establish a group which could make recommendations on what we should do to achieve our objective of FDI inflows of $10 billion annually.

Our thinking on the fundamentals of India-US partnership also found expression in my address to the Council of Foreign Relations. The special role that the Indian community in this country plays as a bridge was recognized in my meetings with them. I also met the leaders of the American Jewish Community as they have been particularly supportive of our interests.

Other than these, on the margins of the UNGA, an expression that I find my officials are being fond of - I met President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and underlined to him our support for the presidential elections that are to take place early next month, and to Afghanistan's development and reconstruction.

I also had the pleasure of meeting President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa. Our President was in South Africa just last week as you know. I took this opportunity meeting President Mbeki to explore common ground in our world views, in particular, on UN reform.

Earlier today, I had a meeting with President Musharraf. I have already spoken about. Suffice to say that we both agreed that dialogue is the only way forward to find a solution to the outstanding issues between us. India is completely sincere about finding solutions that will let us put the unhappy past behind. We have both agreed on this approach.

As I said, I am satisfied with the outcome of my visit. India's views and interests were projected on all my meetings and I perceived a very high degree of receptivity in all my interaction - that India's position is central to addressing major issues of the day."