Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left on Tuesday for a 10-day visit to the United States and France. After a procedural halt at Frankfurt, he is scheduled to leave for New York on Tuesday for the 63rd session of the United National General Assembly (UNGA). 

This will be his second address to the UN General Assembly, on Friday. He missed out the UNGA in 2006 and 2007. 

On September 25, Dr. Singh’s will be meeting with U.S. President George Bush in Washington to discuss the “entire range of issues on our bilateral agenda, including our civil nuclear initiative”. “They will be carrying forward their discussions during the G-8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan, and we expect them to review the progress of a wide range of initiatives in the last three years that have transformed the relationship,” said the Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon. 

Dr. Manmohan Singh will also meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to evaluate progress in trade and people-to-people contacts and deliberate on global issues on which both countries are of similar opinions. 

A meeting between Dr. Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is also going to take place in which issues like cross-border terrorism and frequent incidents of ceasefire violations are going to be discussed.