PM back, ‘very happy’ with talks

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, back from his nine-day tour of UK and US, said his meeting with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was &#145...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, back from his nine-day tour of UK and US, said his meeting with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was ‘‘very good’’ and that they have agreed to carry forward the composite dialogue process.

‘‘It augers well for the future of our two nations,’’ he said in a brief statement on Monday night. The other success he listed was getting Japan, Germany and Brazil to ‘‘canvass support for India’s permanent membership to the UN’’.

‘‘The Group of Four met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. They agreed to garner support for a permanent seat for India in the expanded UN Security Council,’’ the PM said.

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Describing his first visit to the West as the PM, as ‘‘a voyage of discovery’’, Singh said he had used the opportunity to meet world leaders and explain the policies of the new government. The leaders he had met included British Prime Minister Tony Blair, US President George Bush, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and SA President Thabo Mbeki.

The Prime Minister was received at the airport by all the Cabinet Ministers and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.