All eyes on Singh-Obama meet today

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Barack Obama, the two leaders of the largest democracy and the oldest democracy respectively, will meet Thursday accompanied by a high profile team on the sidelines of London Summit for the first time since the latter assumed office in January.

The G-20 Summit commenced on Wednesday night, but the formal plenary meeting will begin today with a host of issues such as protectionism, regulatory mechanisms for financial institutions, and reforms and restructuring of international financial institutions –the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The meeting of the two leaders holds much significance as Obama administration may announce their new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy. The issue of alarming situation in Pakistan has in the Prime Minister’s agenda too; Singh on Wednesday dubbed Pakistan as the epicentre of terrorism, which seeks immediate solution but with concerted effort of all world powers.

India, the victim of cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan, would also like to know that how it figures in the new strategy that triples financial aid to Pakistan.

The US has said India has a crucial role to play to ensure stability in Afghanistan, but also pointed out simultaneously that Indo-Pak tension must get off so as to keep focus on Afghanistan.

“The US has just unveiled its Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy so naturally that will be discussed, but I don't want to second guess,” said Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that it is an opportunity for the two leaders to talk informally instead of any presetting agendas.

From US side there will be six top people, including Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; while Indian side will include Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.

On Wednesday, Singh visited British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at his residence before the G-20 Summit. The meeting lasted for about 50 minutes.

Briefing media after the meeting, Shivshankar Menon did not divulge much except saying that discussions were moving in a direction as India wanted to. The meeting was very “warm and friendly” and as the two leaders were economist, the foreign secretary pointed out, they went back a long way.

Menon said that most part of the discussion centred on the global economic crisis and the ways to overcome it, including terrorism in our region about which Brown said terrorist attacks in major parts of the world, including UK, emanated from Pakistan and something needs to be done, both by Pakistan and the rest of the world.