Obama-Singh meeting sets the tone for official talks on Monday

New Delhi: The visiting US President Barack Obama held a crucial one-on-one meeting with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday upon his arrival in the Indian capital.

The two leaders were together for about half an hour before they joined other guests at a dinner Singh hosted for the visiting couple, Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama at the lawns of his 7 Race Course Road bungalow.

In pictures: Barack Obama's visit to India

The Singh-Obama unscheduled meeting was seen as important ahead of the official talks between the two countries today, after which they would address a joint press conference.

The tone - to give a further boost to the existing cordial ties between the two countries - was set by Singh who broke the protocol and received the visiting couple at the airport along with his wife Gursharan Kaur.

This was after they had landed in Delhi on Sunday afternoon on the second leg of their four-day tour of India from the western metropolis Mumbai.

Obama reciprocated the gesture by giving a warm hug and peck on the cheek to Singh and a peck on the cheek to Kaur, while Michelle followed with pecks on the cheek to Singh and Kaur.

The two leaders spoke for several minutes before Singh introduced the visiting president to the dignitaries present at the airport while the two ladies walked the red carpet hand in hand indicating the close personal rapport the two families have developed over the past 18 months.

Prime Minister Singh broke the protocol only the third time since he took over reigns of the country six-and-a-half years ago. He had received Obama's predecessor George Bush and the Saudi monarch King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.

Mr and Mrs Obama stopped at their hotel ITC Maurya for a brief while where they were accorded a warm traditional Indian welcome before they proceeded to the Roosevelt House, the residence of the US ambassador. They couple spent close to 45 minutes at the 16th century Humanyun Tomb, the mausoleum of the second Mughal King Humayun, a world heritage monument. Although the Obamas were keen to visit the famous Taj Mahal, they could not accommodate a visit to Agra due to their tight schedule.

Best preserved site

Instead they settled for the tomb of the great grandfather of Shahjahan who built the Taj on the models of the Humayun's Tomb, one of the best preserved monuments of Delhi.

They met staff from the Archeological Survey of India and the Agha Khan Trust, and those who are restoring the tomb, and their children who study in a makeshift school the Archeological Survey of India runs nearby.

Singhs, in order to make the dinner which had been planned as a private small affair, decided to make it part of a grand reception for the visiting couple by shifting the venue to the well manicured lawns of 7 Race Course Road and expanding the guest list from 25 to more than 70.

Guests included the ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and her parliamentarian son Rahul Gandhi, and senior federal ministers. With US President Obama succeeding in securing orders worth $10 billion with a number of private and government agencies during his Mumbai leg of the tour on Saturday, the talks between the two countries are now to focus on further developing bilateral ties. Obama said the deals would generate at least 50,000 new jobs in his country,

The focus of the Indo-US talks is expected to be to explore avenues to increase bilateral trade and take the growing strategic relationship to a new high.

Courtesy : Gulf News - 08-Nov. 2010