Busy schedule awaits Manmohan Singh in Canada

Prime minister Manmohan Singh will have a series of meetings with world leaders, including his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper, on the sidelines of G-20 summit, officials said here today.

Singh, who is scheduled to arrive at the Pearson International Airport here this evening, will meet Harper later today to discuss regional and global issues of shared interests, officials said.

He would also have separate meetings with US president
Barack Obama, British prime minister David Cameron, French
president Nicolas Sarkozy and Japan's prime minister Naoto Ka.
  
Singh is also scheduled to meet the leaders of the BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia and China. 

Apart from Civil Nuclear Energy Cooperation Agreement, India and Canada are expected to sign an MOU for Cooperation in Mining, an MOU for Cooperation in Higher Education, an MOU for Cooperation in Culture and a Social Security Agreement,
the sources said.

Agreements and MoUs will be signed after a bilateral meeting between Singh and his Canadian counterpart Harper on
June 27.

Harper will host a special dinner in honour of Singh which is expected to be attended by over 400 dignitaries. Singh is scheduled to leave Toronto on Monday to return to India.

Before conclusion of his visit, Singh will meet Indo-Canadian members of the House of Commons and Senate and members of Ontario legislative assembly and others. 

He may also visit Air India Memorial and meet families of victims if time permits.

"Canada and India are developing the tremendous potential of our relationship by rapidly expanding commercial, cultural and educational ties," Harper had said in a statement.

"I look forward to working with prime minister Singh to further capitalise on our shared strengths," Harper added. 

Prior to his departure to Canada for G20 Summit, Singh said: "India will participate in this exercise and project our expectations from the global economic and financial system, and the kind of global growth processes that we seek." 

"The challenge of the summit will be three fold - to ensure that global economic recovery is durable, balanced and sustainable; to calibrate exit strategies in the light of growing concerns over expansionary fiscal policies; and to focus on medium and long-term structural issues relating to governance issues. To meet our ambitious development targets it is necessary that the global economy continue to recover in a stable and predictable manner," Singh added.