JOIN USNeither US nor Indian officials were forthcoming on what transpired between Obama and Manmohan whose meeting lasted 45 minutes and was then followed by a dinner which was attended by UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Union ministers Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony, P Chidambaram, S M Krishna and Sharad Pawar, senior BJP leader L
K Advani and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
A host of business leaders, including Azim Premji, Ratan Tata, Swati Piramal and N R Narayana Murthy were among the guests, invited for the prime minister’s dinner.
Some prominent film personalities like Aamir Khan, Shabana Azmi and Javed Akthar, besides chess wizard Viswanathan Anand and environment activist Sunita Narain also attended the dinner.
Along with wife Michelle, Obama arrived at the Prime Minister’s 7, Race Course Road residence ahead of schedule for the without-aides-meeting with Singh. Officials of the two sides preferred not to highlight the issues the two discussed ahead of the joint press conference that Obama and Singh would address here on Monday, though both are keen to deepen bilateral and strategic cooperation.
The two leaders took stock of the way the relationship between the two democracies grew over the years and what steps were needed to push them to the next level. These talks will set the stage for the substantial formal engagements between the two sides that will off at 11 am on Monday.