NEW DELHI, May 18:
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has accepted “in principle” the invitation by US President Barack Obama to visit Washington, a senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) confirmed here today.
“Yes. The Prime Minister has accepted in principle,” (the invitation) the official said when asked whether the Prime Minister had accepted the US President’s invitation.
The official declined to say anything more.
The invitation was handed over to Dr Singh by US Deputy Secretary of State during his visit here recently.
Sources said the Prime Minister’s visit could be clubbed together with the UN General Assembly in September.
The proposed visit, which will be the Prime Minister’s second to Washington during Mr Obama’s tenure, is expected to give some momentum to the Indo-US ties which appear to have slowed down recently.
The Prime Minister had last visited Washington in 2009 when Mr Obama hosted a banquet in his honour.
Mr Obama, in his banquet speech on November 24, 2009, had spoken about building a relationship between the two countries into one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century.
“Your visit, at this pivotal moment in history, speaks of the opportunity before us — to build the relationship between our nations, born in the last century, into one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century,” President Obama had said. (UNI)
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