The phone call from US president-elect Barak Obama to prime minister Manmohan Singh finally came through on Wednesday morning, India time.
NEW DELHI: The phone call from US president-elect Barak Obama to prime minister Manmohan Singh finally came through on Wednesday morning, India time.
There was much heartburn over the delay since Obama has called most world leaders by now. The prime minister was out of town and arrived back Tuesday early morning.
Manmohan Singh once again congratulated Obama on his “historic victory” and said it “was a source of inspiration for oppressed people all over the world.” Singh, ever grateful to George Bush for the nuclear deal, had told one of America’s most unpopular presidents that the people of India loved him, leaving himself open to ridicule on the charge of sycophancy.
He now has to get used to a Democrat in the White House. He told Obama that relations between India and the US were now “very good’’ but “we cannot be satisfied with the status quo.’’
The PM invited Obama and his wife Michelle to India and said a “warm welcome awaited them here.’’ The president-elect accepted the invitation, saying he wanted to make an early visit to this country.
Obama stressed the importance of relations with India. “He said the US-India strategic relationship was a very important partnership and that the new administration wanted to work together with India on all important global issues,’’ the PM’s Office said in a statement.
Talks on strategic ties with India actually began during president Bill Clinton’s second term in the White House when prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in power here. Strategic relations gathered momentum when George Bush came to power and wanted a new security architecture for Asia, with a rising India to balance China’s growing economic and military might in the Asia Pacific.
Obama praised Manmohan Singh’s vision both as finance minister when he set India on the course to economic reform and as prime minister overseeing the growth and resilience of the Indian economy.
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