PM to meet Bush on Wednesday

Amidst the Left parties deciding to withdraw support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government on Tuesday and the United States applying pressure on India quickly to go ahead with the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet US President George W Bush and leaders of other members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group at Hokkaido in northern Japan on Wednesday.
 
The meeting assumes significance in the wake of hectic political manouevrings in India as the Left parties have pulled the plug on the UPA over the controversial civil nuclear deal that the prime minister and the US president struck three years ago.

The prime minister is staying in Sapporo, a major Japanese city, about 150 km from the venue of the G8 Summit at the Windsor Hotel Toya, in Toyako on the banks of Lake Toya, and will be driven to the venue early in the morning to attend the 8 am meeting with President Bush.

Dr Singh is likely to apprise Bush of India's commitment to the civil nuclear energy deal, notwithstanding the hot political development in India, with the Left parties pulling out support to the UPA thereby reducing the Manmohan Singh government to a minority.

Dr Singh, however, is unfazed and says that he is ready to go to Parliament to prove his majority and that the Left's move will not make the government unstable.

He also said that India will now move to approach the International Atomic Energy Watchdog for securing an India-specific safeguards agreement "very soon."

The prime minister will also meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, and also interact with leaders of Australia, Germany, Canada, and others.