Manmohan to meet Zardari, Wen Jiabao and World Bank President in New York today

New York, Sept 24 : Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is scheduled to meet Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick here today on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.

Dr. Singh reached New York last night on the first leg of his 10-day visit to the United States and France.

On the eve of the meeting between Dr. Singh and Zardari later tonight, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir held a meeting in New York. The duo discussed the agenda for the Summit-level meeting, official sources said.

After the meeting, Bashir said that President Zardari was a strong leader and that there was now multiple power sectors in Pakistan.

In his meeting with Wen Jiabao, Dr. Singh is expected to discuss the progress made in bilateral trade between the two countries. People-to-people contacts will also be reviewed and global issues on which both countries hold similar views will also come up for discussion.

The highlight of Dr. Singh's U.S. visit will be his meeting with American President George W Bush in Washington on Thursday. It is expected that both will discuss a host of issues on their bilateral agenda, including our civil nuclear initiative.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday cleared the Indo-U.S. civil nuclear cooperation agreement with an overwhelming 19-2 vote. The Bill will go to the full Congress for the final ratification.

ANI