Sapporo, July 9 “It was a typical conversation among friends,” was how the US President, Mr George Bush, described his meeting with the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, that extended well beyond the half hour that it was slotted.

And they talked about the nuclear deal that has been in the works since the two leaders first met in July 2005.

In statements made to the media after their early morning meeting on the margins of the G-8 meeting at Toyako in northern Japan, Mr Bush said how important it (the nuclear deal) was for their respective countries; Dr Singh spoke of the “progress made in nuclear cooperation”.

Mr Bush said they talked about Free Trade, the Doha round (of talks at the World Trade Organisation) and “how important it is that nations such as India and the United States find common ground to make sure protectionist sentiments don’t wall us off from the rest of the world.”

He talked of the educational exchanges, reminding Dr Singh “that the Indian American population is very proud of this relationship, and proud of their heritage, and proud of the leadership of the Prime Minister.”

On the environment, the President said they discussed “how we can work together to grow our economies and, at the same time, be responsible stewards of the environment.”

Dr Singh said that he was “very pleased with the state of our relationship, which has truly acquired the characteristic of a genuine strategic partnership,” a relationship that Mr Bush said was one that addressed some of the world’s problems as well.

“We have made progress in all areas. We have progress in nuclear cooperation, space cooperation, defence cooperation, educational exchanges, our working together in multilateral institutions for the success of the Doha Round,” Dr Singh said.

The Prime Minister later met the Australian Prime Minister, Mr Kevin Rudd.

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