Bush meets Jaswant, accepts invitation to visit India

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington, APRIL 6. In an indication of the importance the new administration bestows on relations with India, the U.S. President, Mr. George Bush, dropped by during a meeting between the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, and the U.S. National Security Adviser, Ms. Condoleeza Rice, this morning.

Mr. Bush is said to have taken Mr. Singh to the Oval Office, where they spent a few minutes. It is learnt that Mr. Singh extended an invitation to Mr. Bush to visit India, and the President had accepted.

``The Indian Defence and Foreign Minister was in the White House this morning meeting Dr. Rice. He had a brief exchange of pleasantries with the President in the Oval Office, but his meeting took place with Ms. Rice,'' the White House spokesman, Mr. Ari Fleischer, said.

After his meeting with Ms. Rice, Mr. Singh went to the State Department for talks and a working lunch with the Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell. ``It was a very, very fine meeting,'' Gen. Powell said when he came to see off Mr. Singh.

In brief remarks to presspersons, Gen. Powell said that earlier Mr. Singh met Mr. Bush and Ms. Rice, and later was due to see the Defence Secretary, Mr. Donald Rumsfeld. All this was indicative of the important relations with India.

Gen. Powell said he discussed with Mr. Singh a number of issues, including economic, proliferation, trade and the region. He assured Mr. Singh that the Bush administration was keen on engaging India ``at every level''.

Mr. Singh said he had had fruitful meetings thus far, reflective of the present directions of India-U.S. relations. Neither Gen. Powell nor Mr. Singh took questions at the end of their remarks.

Administration officials said they were ``looking forward'' to the visit of Mr. Singh, which is seen as an opportunity to exchange ideas at a broad and general level on a range of subjects. The first interaction between India and the Bush administration is not expected to focus on any one issue even if such areas as sanctions come up during the discussions.

The administration is in the process of reviewing the entire gamut of sanctions, and there is a widespread feeling on Capitol Hill among lawmakers that the punitive measures against India ought to be lifted. In fact, as many as 47 lawmakers in the House of Representatives wrote to the President earlier this week seeking the removal of sanctions arguing, among other things, that they had not furthered American interests.

Mr. Singh's delegation includes the Joint-Secretary for the Americas, Mr. Jayant Prasad, the Joint-Secretary for Disarmament, Mr. Sheelkant Sharma, the Joint-Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Mr. S. Rajkumar, Vice-Admiral Madan Jit Singh and the External Affairs spokesman, Mr. Raminder Singh Jassal.

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