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The US president George W Bush said that the Indo-US deal is important for both the countries and heaped praise on Indian PM “for his leadership at home” while talking to the PM, Manmohan Singh on Tuesday.

Amid the unrest in Indian political parties due to the Indo-US deal, the confident Prime Minister met Bush in Hotel Windsor on Mount Poromoi on the sidelines of the G-8 summit; hours before the Left parties would be withdrawing support on the nuclear deal.

Both the leaders expressed mutual admiration for each other and spoke of the need for closer relationship between the two countries during the 50 minute meeting.

“Our relationship with the United States has never been in such good shape as it is today…. And it is the intention of my government… whether it is a question of climate change… global economy, India and US must stand tall, stand shoulder to shoulder, and that’s what is going to happen,” Said Singh while reporting to media.

“We talked about the India-US nuclear deal and how important it is for our respective countries,” Bush said before the press in a relaxed mood and displayed personal warmth.

“I respect the Prime Minister a lot. I also respect India a lot, and I think it’s very important that the United States continues to work with our friends to develop not only a new strategic relationship, but a relationship that addresses some of the world’s problems,” said the President.

Tags: Bush, G-8, India, Indo US, Manmohan Singh, MM Singh, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, US

To conclude the Indo-US nuclear deal, which was suspected to be almost over, India needs to make some tough choices. The US has asked India to make some “tough choices” in making the deal a possibility.

“… President Bush pressed for the civilian nuclear agreement with India against strong opposition because he’s committed to our long-term strategic partnership. Now India needs to make some tough choices,” a senior US official said.

There are uncertainities looming over this deal for last many days. According to the US official there is rising demand of energy and amid these conditions there is an urgent need to realise the potential of this historic agreement by India.

“… Rising demand for energy is an issue that our countries can’t ignore. We believe it’s essential to quickly implement the landmark civilian nuclear agreement and bring India into the international nuclear non-proliferation mainstream,” commerce secretary Carlos Gutierrez said at United States India Business Council (USIBC) 33rd anniversary celebrations here.

The United States remains committed to being India’s partner in providing clean, sustainable energy. While this includes nuclear power, it also means using other clean energy technologies, he added.

“We are moving toward a political consensus inch by inch. I don’t think it has been put away and I am confident that at some point we are going to arrive at this political consensus within India and that’s the best way to do it,” Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said.

Tags: Bush, India, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, US, USA

To tackle climate change, a crucial global issue, needs the involvement of developing countries like India and China. These are the views of George Bush.

“By working on new technologies and working to make sure that China and India are at the table, that’s the way to try to tackle this problem,” White House spokesperson Dana Perino said on the fall of a climate change bill after a procedural vote in the Senate on Friday.

“And President George Bush will certainly talk about this when he’s in Europe next week.” She added.

Global warming is a matter of concern all over the world. Increasing level of carbon on Earth and melting ice caps mirrors drastic changes in climate in near future.

The bill to set up a cap-and-trade system to limit climate-warming carbon emissions aimed to cut total US global warming emissions by 66 percent by 2050. Opponents said it would cost US jobs and raise fuel prices in an already pinched American economy.

“Let’s just say we did not support the bill,” said Perino. Bush had threatened to veto it in its current form citing among other things for not seeking action at home in concert with India, China and other emerging economies.

Apart from Presidential opposition, she suggested the bill fell because the Democratic majority “wasn’t even going to spend enough time to allow people to have any chance of talking about it or amending” what they called “the most important bill to face this Congress.”

“And this is a bill that would have a huge impact on the economy, and a huge impact on people, working people, in America, and probably not have a lot of impact overseas,” Perino said.

Neither the Democrat Presidential candidate Barack Obama nor his Republican counterpart John McCain cast votes on the bill.

Tags: America, Barack Obama, Bush, China, India, US

After Bush has blamed Indian middle class behind the soaring food prices, India has blamed the policies of World Bank and IMF and “excessive and unsustainable” demand in developed countries for the crisis.

“This consumption trend has existed for more than a decade,” said Indian UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen.

He pointed out that over last two years, the demand for oil has gone up one per cent but prices in dollar terms have risen by 90 per cent. The issue was sparked off after the US and EU said the growth of India and China which has led to rise in consumption level has led to the shortage.

Addressing a special meeting of the United Nations economic and social council to consider the issue of rising food prices, he held financial crisis leading to weakening dollar and diversion of grains to production of bio-fuels among the major causes.

Policies followed by the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWI) are also behind the inflation according to Sen. He severely criticized their advice to countries to shift from food crops for domestic population to cash crops for exports.

“They seem to feel that subsidies are good for the rich but bad for the poor,” Sen said such policies had “predictable negative impact” on food production.

The debate came in the backdrop of UN agencies warning that more than one billion could added to those already needing food assistance because of high prices.

Tags: Bio Fuels, Bush, China, IMF, India, UN, US, World Bank

In an interview US President George Bush claimed that “another attack on the United States” is his worst worry.

Bush was concerned about the person who is going to win the presidential elections in November. He is worried and concerned that if Democrat won the presidential elections and withdrew troops prematurely from Iraq, then it could lead to another attack on US and from this he is too much worrying.

He also quoted that he was disappointed in “flawed intelligence” before the Iraq war. Bush also said that he gave up playing golf in 2003 for the respect for US soldiers killed in the Iraq war. The war is going on from last five years.

“I didn’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” Bush further said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

When some one asked Bush whether he felt he had been misled about Iraq as he made the decision to go to war. “`Misled’ is a strong word,” he said. “Not only our intelligence community, but intelligence communities all across the world shared the same assessment. And so I was disappointed to see how flawed our intelligence was.”

“Do I think somebody lied to me? No, I don’t. I think it was just, you know, they analyzed the situation and came up with the wrong conclusion,” Bush added.

Tags: Bush, Iraq, President, US, War

US President George Bush blamed the growing prosperity of India’s large middle class for global rise in food prices. Bush joined his top diplomat Condoleezza Rice in suggesting India’s role in the world food crisis as she had also said last week that apparent improvement in the diets of people in China and India and resultant export caps among the reasons for the skyrocketing prices of grain worldwide.

While commenting on the economy during a visit on Friday to World Wide Technology, Inc. in Maryland Heights, Missouri Bush said,”…the more prosperous the world is, the more opportunity there is, It also, however, increases demand.”

“So, for example, just as an interesting thought for you, there are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That’s bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population. ”

“And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food. And so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up,”

But unlike Rice who acknowledged that biofuels may be a contributory factor, Bush would not agree that America’s new found love for corn-based ethanol was causing the prices of food to go up.

Major part of ethanol now is produced from corn causing increase in the price of corn, he said.

‘I’ve looked at this issue a lot. Actually, the reason why food prices are high now is because, one, energy costs are high. And if you’re a farmer, you’re going to pass on your cost of energy in the product you sell; otherwise you go broke,’ Bush said.

Weather-related problems are one more factor for the crisis as told by Bush. He said, “Some of the major producers of food have had drought. That’s what happens. Weather patterns change. And so there’s a lot of reasons why the price of food is high.”

Telling that America is by far the most generous nation when it comes to helping the hungry, he said, “No contest. We’re an unbelievably compassionate nation.”

Bush asked Congress to put some more money out, about USD 5 billion as compared to their USD 19 billion, over a two-year period of time, of food.

Tags: Bush, Food Prices, India, US

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met United States President George W Bush on Monday to hold a talk on civil nuclear deal and other related issues. It was Mukherjee’s first visit to Washington as the External Affairs Minister.

The meeting went smoothly at the Oval Office at White House and both the leaders discussed the prime issues on N-deal at afternoon and last for around 35-minutes.

Ambassador of India Ronen Sen, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, Deputy Chief of the Indian Mission Raminder Singh Jassal and the Joint Secretary (Americas) of the Ministry of External Affairs Gayatri Kumar were also present in the meeting. Present with Bush were his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and his National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley.

All the details are not disclosed about the meeting but Bush and Mukherjee are said to have discussed the width and depth of the United States-India relations that included the civilian nuclear initiative.

“You will know tomorrow from the minister” was all that a senior official would say when asked about the details of the Mukherjee-Bush meeting.

Earlier to this crucial meeting, Rice and Mukherjee also met on Monday at Foggy Bottom earlier in the morning. It was told that meeting was basically confined to regional issues of interest to the two sides and that a lot more was slated to be discussed in the evening, including the civilian nuclear initiative.

“We will continue to work on that agreement,” Rice said after meeting Mukherjee.

“The Indians are now in a process of working with the International Atomic Energy Agency and we will follow that progress and we will have further discussions on that matter,” she added.

Tags: Atomic Energy, Bush, External Affiars, India, Misiter, N-deal, Nuclear deal, Pranab Mukherjee, Shivshankar Menon, US

Bush Administration asked China to hold talk with the Dalai Lama to resolve the issues and not for the independence of Tibet.

Deputy Spokesman of the US State Department Tom Casey said, “I think one thing that is clear is that the Dalai Lama is not talking about the independence for Tibet. He is calling for engagement with Chinese officials in dialogue. And we support that call. We very much want to see the Chinese speak with the Dalai Lama or his representatives to try and resolve many of these outstanding issues.”

A senior officer told, “He (Dalai Lama) is the spiritual leader for Tibet people. And we believe that he has an important role to play in being able to help resolve some of the tensions and problems there.”

Asking China to exercise restraint in dealing with protests in Tibet, the senior Bush administration official said, “We do not want any loss of innocent life.”

Tags: Bush, China, Dalai Lama, Tibet