Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday wound up his four-day visit to Germany, which witnessed a political push being given by India and the US to the talks on civil nuclear cooperation that had got stuck because of differences on reprocessing and some other issues.
During his stay in Berlin and at the German seaside resort of Heiligendamm, Dr Singh attended the G-8 Summit and met world leaders, including US President George W Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The major highlight of the visit was Dr Singh's brief meeting with Bush during which they voiced their commitment to conclude the 123 Agreement, emphasising that it was 'doable'.
This has raised hopes considering that the negotiators of the two countries had failed to break the logjam on the talks due to differences on reprocessing and perpetuity of fuel supplies and were looking for a political signal from the highest level.
In an effort to end the impasse, India made a fresh proposal of setting up a dedicated facility for reprocessing under safeguards.
Both Bush and Dr Singh said they were committed to seeing the agreement through which is mutually acceptable meeting the needs of India and the US.
Dr Singh also made a strong pitch for preservation of climate at the G-8 Summit as he underlined that the developed world has to share responsibility for checking the problem.
