Barack Obama wrote a 'very nice letter' to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit to the United States in which the Democrat Senator assured his full support for the Indo-US nuclear deal which was facing uncertainty before the American Congress.
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This was stated by Former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and prime minister''s special envoy on Wednesday shortly after Obama was voted to become the US' 44th President.
"He had written a very nice letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in September saying he would vote in favour of the Indo-US nuclear agreement and assured his full support to it," Saran told NDTV.
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The letter was written when the prime minister was in the US to address the UN and for summit talks with President George W Bush in the last week of September.
Attaching great importance to the Indo-US relationship, Obama had told the prime minister he would like to work together with India on various other shared interests as the President of the US, Saran said.
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Obama talked about not only shared values but also about shared interests, Saran said.
"At least the sentiments expressed in that letter make me believe that in fact this presidency would be another interesting and a very positive chapter in Indo-US relations," he added.
The Illinois Senator while mentioning about shared interest talked about terrorism and the need for India and the US to work together on terrorism.
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Saran said Obama referred to the attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul and said it goes to show why India and the US needed to work together.
In the letter, Obama told the prime minister there are shared interests on which 'I as the President of the US would like to work together with India'.
For example, Obama said there is a problem of climate change. He himself had put forward a programme for the accelerated development of renewable energy. So, he told the prime minister 'this is one area I would like to see India's research laboratories, India's industries, the tremendous talent which is there is your country to work with us'.
'So that is one element of the partnership that I would like to see,' Obama said.
He said another element Obama spoke about was on how the two countries have to work together on nuclear non-proliferation. Obama also mentioned 'I intend to promote the cause of the world free of nuclear weapons'.
Characterising the US election outcome as 'a generation change', Saran said the Indo-US relationship is very important to US president-elect Barack Obama.
