Meeting under the shadow of twin terror attacks in Kashmir, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put terrorism emanating from Pakistan in sharp focus at his third summit here Friday with US President Barack Obama.
Lowering expectations from his upcoming meeting Sunday with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York, Manmohan Singh told Obama of the difficulties India faced with its neighbour as terrorists "still remain focused in Pakistan".
"I explained to President Obama the difficulties that we face, given the fact that the (presence) of terrorists still remains focused in Pakistan," the prime minister said as the two leaders concluded their meeting at the White House Oval office.
He looked forward to meeting Sharif Sunday "even though the expectations have to be toned down given the terror arm which is still active in our subcontinent," he said.
Speaking first the US president said, they had discussed Pakistan and "our shared interest in seeing a peaceful reduction of tensions on the subcontinent".
He said he wanted "to very much thank Manmohan Singh for what has been a consistent interest in improving cooperation between India and Pakistan.
More From This Section
Obama also spoke of the wide-ranging security cooperation India and the US have in battling terrorism noting Manmohan Singh "obviously is deeply concerned about given the impact of terrorism on India".
"All of us remember the horrible events that took place in Mumbai, but as recently as the last few days, India continues to suffer from terrorist attacks, and our hearts go out to the families that have been impacted," he said.
The meeting came even as Sharif, addressing the UN general assembly around the same time, said Islamabad stood ready to "re-engage with India in a substantive and purposeful dialogue" and he looked forward to meeting Manmohan Singh "to make a new beginning".
Obama also announced that India and US had reached agreement on the first commercial agreement under their landmark civil nuclear deal amidst a controversy over India's 2010 nuclear liability law that had stalled it.
The agreement was announced by Obama after his summit meeting Friday with the Indian prime minister at the White House oval office.
"We've made enormous progress on the issue of civilian nuclear power, and in fact, have been able to achieve just in the last few days an agreement on the first commercial agreement between a US company and India on civilian nuclear power," he said.
It was not yet clear when India's only nuclear power operator, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and the US-based supplier, Westinghouse Electric Company would sign "Pre Early Works Agreement".
India plans to buy six of the Westinghouse-manufactured AP 1000 nuclear reactors in a deal worth about $14 billion for its nuclear power project at Chayya-Mithivirdi in Gujarat, one of the two sites set aside under the nuclear deal.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)