JOURNALIST:
Sir, I am from All India Radio. I have a question for both the Prime Ministers. What are both of your expectations from this visit?
PRIME MINSTER SINGH:
India and Australia are members of the Commonwealth. We are two English-speaking countries. We have a large Indian community in Australia. We have nearly 30,000 students studying there. Our trade is expanding very rapidly. This is a unique opportunity for me and the Prime Minister to review the progress we have made in working together and explore new options so that our two countries can cooperate more intensively and diversely.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
This is a wonderful moment in the history of the relationship between the two countries to consolidate what we have achieved in the past and have in common but also to explore a lot of new fields. India's economic growth, her influence, is very significant. India is now the fourth-largest economy in the world and in a short distance of time may in fact become the third. Its growth rate is very significant. We have a lot in common. We have the shared history and the shared love of certain sports that you're very familiar with. All of those things bind us together and both the Prime Minister and I believe very strongly that now is the right time to achieve what you might call a quantum leap in the relationship.
JOURNALIST:
Dr Singh, are you hoping to buy Australian uranium?
PRIME MINISTER SINGH:
We would like to trade with Australia in all areas and we are short of uranium. We would very much like Australia to sell uranium to India.
JOURNALIST:
Would you like a deal on uranium done while Prime Minister Howard is here?
PRIME MINISTER SINGH:
Well I will discuss all relevant issues.
JOURNALIST:
Are you hopeful of Mr Howard acceding to your request for Australian uranium?
PRIME MINISTER SINGH:
We will discuss all these issues.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
I think we will talk about them and we'll talk about them against the background of the policies and the needs of the two countries. Thank you.
[ends]