For months, American officials have been insisting, as one put it, that "there is no higher priority" for George Bush's second term in office than "expanding and broadening our relationship with India". If that could be achieved by pomp and ceremony, the visit this week to Washington, DC, of Manmohan Singh, India's prime minister, would have done the trick. He was showered with honours, including a 19-gun salute and the chance to make a speech to Congress. The president even stayed up late to entertain him to a White House banquet, only the fifth he has thrown in more than four years.
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