China, Pakistan top agenda of Manmohan Singh-Obama one-on-one chat

NEW DELHI: The real summit between PM Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama happened on Sunday evening.

They were supposed to meet for half an hour before dinner, but Obama and Singh spent an entire hour closeted together in a one-on-one chat that may turn out to be the most important conversation between the two leaders through this visit.

The meeting focused on the big things that India has been wanting to talk about: maritime security, China , Pakistan, regional security and global geo-politics . This could be the real breakthrough between India and Obama’s US.

As India’s foreign policy moves out of South Asia, maritime security , protection of sea lanes and piracy on the high seas is increasingly one of the areas where India and the US are finding easy convergence of their interests.

It brings in China, because after July, when China declared the South China Sea to be its “core interest” , countries including India, US, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam have declared equal interest in keeping international sea lanes free for navigation.