Prime Minister Manmohan Singh invited the US President Barack Obama, in a brief meet at the G-8+G-5 summit on Thursday, to visit India and the President has accepted the invitation. The dates will be finalized soon, it is believed.

Obama also invited Singh for a mutual visit to the US and the Prime Minister accepted the invite.

Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon stated, “There is an invitation for him (Dr. Singh) to go. There is also an invitation to President Obama to come to India. Both have been accepted.”

Addressing the press at the end of the summit, Obama made it clear that it is unwise to think that global challenges could be met without ‘major powers’ like India.