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Sinha has packed schedule in U.S.

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington Sept. 6. The External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, arrives here on Sunday for two days of official-level meetings. No stranger to Washington, Mr. Sinha is making his first visit as the External Affairs Minister.

Mr. Sinha has a packed schedule and on Monday, he will meet the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, at the State Department, and the meeting will be followed by a working lunch. Later, they are expected to make brief remarks to the media at the `Stake Out'.

Mr. Sinha is also scheduled to meet the Secretaries of Treasury and Defence as well as the President's National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice. His appointments reflect in many ways the setting for the meeting of the U.S. President, George Bush, and the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee.

The bilateral agenda is indeed broad but Mr. Bush and Mr. Vajpayee cannot be expected to deal with every aspect of the relationship.

Mr. Sinha's visit is to firm up the discussion agenda for the two leaders.

Apart from meeting the local media here, Mr. Sinha is due to address the Brookings Institution on Tuesday and meet Congressional leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives before leaving for New York to join Mr. Vajpayee and his delegation arriving late in the afternoon.

After Mr. Vajpayee leaves for New Delhi, Mr. Sinha will go to Canada. Indo-Canada relations, which were frosty in the aftermath of the 1998 nuclear tests and the sanctions that followed, are getting back on track. He will interact in substantive ways with senior Cabinet members such as the Canadian Foreign Minister, Bill Graham. A meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister is also expected.

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