US preparing “hard” for Manmohan Singh's visit in November: US

New York: The United States administration is now letting it be known that it is hard at work preparing for Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh's state visit on 24 November as it views India as one of its most important partners in the 21st century. This was conveyed by US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, to Indian external affairs minister SM Krishna when they met as they met here on Friday, according to state department sources.

Dr Manmohan Singh's visit will be unique in that it will be the first state visit to be hosted by the Obama administration.

Briefing reporters on the Clinton-Krishna meeting, assistant secretary of state, Robert Blake, said, however, ''...still a lot of work is to be done there."

According to Blake, Clinton told Krishna that even as the US hoped to move forward on civil nuclear cooperation with India, there were still some initiatives that remained to be realised- particularly with respect to signing liability legislation, getting the Indian parliament to approve liability legislation for US companies and also a formal announcement by India of two reactor parks earmarked for US companies.

Blake was at pains to emphasise that the US-sponsored UN Security Council resolution, which urges all states to join the NPT, did not come up at the Clinton-Krishna meeting. But "we've said before that the resolution does not have any bearing on our bilateral civil nuclear cooperation, and that really shouldn't have any effect whatsoever."

"So we've provided reassurances to that effect to our friends in the Indian government," Blake said.