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With n-deal on menu Bush will host Singh
in Family Room
By
Manish Chand
New
York, Sep 24 (IANS) With the nuclear deal as the main course on
the menu, US President George Bush will host a working dinner
for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday in the Old Family
Dining Room in the White House - a private space where history-making
decisions are made by American presidents.
Besides the nuclear deal, there will be a buffet of big-ticket
items on the table when Manmohan Singh and Bush sup with their
close aides in a cosy space of about 28 feet by 25 feet where
Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt reportedly brainstormed
during World War II.
It will also be a walk down history as Manmohan Singh ambles
up to his dinner date with Bush with portraits of past occupants
of Old Family Dining staring at him.
Bush also hosts lunches in this room for small groups of writers,
historians and journalists to discuss a book or weighty issues
on his mind.
Only a select few from both sides have been invited for this
potentially historic dinner. Minister of State for External Affairs
Anand Sharma, National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, Foreign
Secretary Shivshankar Menon, Prime Minister's Special Envoy on
the nuclear deal and climate change Shyam Saran and India's ambassador
to US Ronen Sen will be sharing the table with Manmohan Singh
and Bush.
US Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William
Burns will be among those present from the American side.
The Family Dining Room is used by the First Family to host small
formal dinners. Built by the Madisons, the first floor's smaller
dining room was originally meant for family meals and was thought
of as the "breakfast room" until 1961 when Jackie Kennedy
created a dining room upstairs.
These days, the room is used for staging state dinners. Members
of the president's staff often get shunted from the Dining Room
by last-minute guests and land up in what has come to be called
an "an overflow" room.
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