Amid preparations for negotiating the bilateral agreement to operationalise the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and other top BJP leaders on Tuesday to apprise them of various foreign policy initiatives.
The luncheon meeting at the prime minister's official Race Course Road residence was attended by Jaswant Singh and former national security adviser Brajesh Mishra.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshanker Menon assisted Dr Singh in outlining government's approach on the foreign policy front.
The prime minister's exercise, aimed at clearing the air over 'misunderstandings' and 'misapprehensions', comes within days of Leader of Opposition L K Advani accusing the United Progressive Alliance government of reducing India to a 'client state' of the US by 'accepting' terms set out by Washington in the American legislation on the nuclear deal.
Advani had charged that once the bilateral agreement was put in place, it would mean capping, rolling back and finally eliminating India's nuclear weapons programme and its 'nuclear swaraj'.
