Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will spend the next three days at the high table of global diplomacy at the G8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy, where the high point will be his meeting with US President Barack Obama. It’s learnt that Washington wants to extend the honour of the first state visit to the US in the Obama presidency to Singh; the plan could be firmed up during this trip.

Invitations are pending on both sides and even though the PM will be traveling to New York for the UN General Assembly and then to Pittsburg for the G20 meet, the US is said to be keen on a proper bilateral state visit at a time convenient to both sides. If it materialises, that visit would pave the way for a Obama trip to India next year.

While these are all plans and proposals at the moment, the fact that they are suddenly picking up momentum is being seen as an encouraging sign given the drift that had set in as Obama assumed power and India went to polls earlier this year. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be in India on July 20-21 to take forward the conversation that Obama and Singh will have in Italy.

The G8 itself will see an important change this time with work getting underway on moving to the next phase of expanding the forum. The final declaration, for the first time, is expected to be a joint G8 and G5 document. The G5 or the Outreach Five countries are India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico. This was one point the PM had made no bones about when he attended the Heiligendamm G8 Summit in 2007 where he had objected to the declaration being drafted without discussions with the G5 countries.

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