New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh received a phone call from US President George W Bush on Monday and both leaders spoke for 10 minutes on issues, including the controversial Indo-US nuclear deal.
Bush's phone call comes days after US Congressmen wrote to PM Singh, asking him to severe military and economic ties with Iran in the interest of relations with Washington.
"The two leaders expressed happiness at the strengthening of the bilateral relations and reviewed developments pertaining to negotiations on bilateral civil nuclear cooperation," PM's Media Adviser Sanjaya Baru was quoted as saying in a statement.
Importantly, Manmohan Singh was understood to have accepted Bush's invitation to visit the US again and said a mutually convenient date would be worked out.
Bush’s conversation with Singh is also being seen as an attempt to clear the air after a senior law makers like Tom Lantos, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Gary Ackerman, who is the Chair of the House Middle East and South Asia subcommittee, and others wrote strongly-worded letter to Singh over the nuclear deal.
The letter that raged a political furore expressed “deep concern” over India's "increasing cooperation" with Iran, the American lawmakers warned such ties could negatively impact bilateral ties in general and consideration by Congress of the bilateral 123 agreement (to operationalise the civil nuclear deal) in particular.
The two leaders also discussed the upcoming G-8 Outreach Summit in Germany scheduled next month.
Singh conveyed India's commitment to work with other countries to deal with the problems of climate change and global warming, Baru said.
(With PTI inputs)
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