India Post News Service

NEW YORK: In what is being seen in diplomatic circles as an extremely rare sense of bonding between two world leaders, President George W. Bush told Prime Minster Manmohan Singh that it was for his "calming and serene effect" that he wanted to meet the Indian premier, in the midst of the financial turmoil facing the nation.

At the White House Oval Office meeting between the two leaders on Sept 25, when Prime Minister Singh expressed gratitude to President Bush that in the middle of his pre-occupation with the US financial situation the latter had found time to spend time together, President Bush said in return that in the middle of all this, the one person that he wanted to spend time with was the Prime Minister for his "calming and serene effect".

The valedictory tone was palpable throughout. The Oval Office meeting between President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, followed by their working dinner in the Old Family Room of the White House last Thursday, elicited a strong sense of satisfaction achieved over the last few years in bringing the India-US relation to where it is today. The major outcome of the meeting between the two leaders was the "quality" of the conversation, according to India's Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.

"I have not seen a conversation of this quality at this level. It is very rare that you see this," he said at a media briefing after the dinner meeting. "It was very easy flow of ideas," he said describing the bonhomie between the President and Prime Minister. "Both obviously understood each other well and were very comfortable with each other and for me that was very remarkable. You know it was not a formal or stilted conversation where you have an agenda that you have to say this or do that. Not at all, and I think that this is a result of the success of the last few years of transformation in the relationship that we have accomplished.

That was the experience of having successfully worked together." "Everything that we wanted to do and achieve was done," Menon said. "Naturally, there was something of a valedictory tone to it as probably it was the last time President Bush was in White House that the Prime Minister was visiting." Menon described it as "really quite a remarkable conversation." It did not come as a surprise then that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went over the limb to tell the President that the people of India "deeply love you". Menon justified Singh's assertion on behalf of the people of India citing public opinion polls.

"The ratings for President Bush are higher in India than in any other country. That is the factual basis (for him to say that the people of India love President Bush)." The "small and very relaxed" dinner was not very formal, Menon informed. There were no speeches. Partaking of the meal were, on the US side, Vice President Dick Cheney, US Ambassador to India David Mulford, Under Secretary William Burns, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, Secretary for Education Margaret Spellings, and United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab.

On the Indian side were Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, the National Security Adviser, Special Envoy to the PM, Foreign Secretary, Joint Secretaries from the Prime Minister's Office and the personal secretary to the PM. Hungry for more mundane details, a reporter wanted to know what food was served, whether any vegetarian food served and if the food was tasty. To which Menon said it was "very nice food; perhaps fish."