'Congratulations On Your Leadership At Home'

President George Bush: Prime Minister Singh and I just had a typicalconversation among friends. We talked about common opportunities, worldproblems, and we did it in a spirit of respect--and it was easy for me to dobecause I respect the Prime Minister a lot. I also respect India a lot, and Ithink it's very important that the United States continues to work with ourfriends to develop not only a new strategic relationship, but a relationshipthat addresses some of the world's problems.

We talked about the India-U.S. nuclear deal, and how important that is forour respective countries. We talked about the environment and how we can worktogether to grow our economies and, at the same time, be responsible stewards ofthe environment. We talked about free trade, the Doha Round, and how importantit is that nations such as India and the United States find common ground tomake sure protectionist sentiments don't wall us off from the rest of the world.

We talked about educational exchanges. I reminded the Prime Minister that theIndian American population is very proud of this relationship, and proud oftheir heritage, and proud of the leadership of the Prime Minister.

All in all, it was a really good meeting amongst two friends. And so, Mr.Prime Minister, thank you for joining us today, and congratulations on yourleadership at home.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh: Mr. President, it is a greatopportunity for me to once again meet you and to review with you the state ofIndo-American relations. And I'm very happy to report to the President thatour relations have moved forward handsomely since our first meeting in July2005. We have made progress in all areas. We have progress in nuclearcooperation, space cooperation, defense cooperation, educational exchanges, ourworking together in multilateral institutions for the success of the Doha Round.And I am very pleased with the state of our relationship, which has trulyacquired the characteristic of a genuine strategic partnership.

I thank the President for his personal magnificent contribution to theevolution of our relationship. And all I can say is our relationship with theUnited States has never been in such good shape as it is today. And it is theintention of my government, as I believe it is also the will of the Indianpeople, particularly the thinking segments of our population, that in thisincreasingly interdependent world that we live in, whether it is a question ofclimate change, whether it is a question of managing the global economy, Indiaand United States must stand tall, stand shoulder to shoulder, and that's whatis going to happen.