London, July 6: “I am not going to the US with a begging bowl,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared when asked about the expectations from his forthcoming visit to Washington DC.

Replying to the media’s and the Left’s criticism of the new defence agreement with the US, Singh argued that the meeting between Indian defence minister Pranab Mukherjee and US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld was “very successful.” However, he felt that the media had wrongly interpreted it.

“The interpretation in the media of the framework agreement on defence cooperation is far off the mark. I don’t think any harm will come out of this agreement. We have not surrendered our sovereignty,” he argued.

Singh’s clarification seemed directed at the Left that has raised serious objections to some clauses of the framework agreement and is planning a nationwide protest against the agreement.

The Prime Minister claimed that India’s relationship with the US was “quite good” and that he saw his bilateral visit to Washington DC as an opportunity to create better understanding between the two countries.

“We need the US to help us to ensure that our energy security is not curtailed by constraints imposed on us in the past.” The reference clearly was to Indian desire to purchase civilian nuclear reactors in the international market, which it cannot do because of the sanctions imposed after the May 1998 nuclear tests.

After these sanctions, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the cartel that controls the transfer of civilian nuclear technology worldwide, has refused to supply nuclear reactors to generate power to India. France and Russia, which have shown interest in this regard, are also forced to factor in US opposition in dealing with India on nuclear issues and will not violate NSG guidelines.

However, the Prime Minister insisted: “I am not going to the US to negotiate any deals.” He said the visit would provide an opportunity to the US leadership “to understand India’s aspirations”.

Singh is to address the G8 summit of the developed nations tomorrow at Gleneagles in Scotland. He said India’s concern at the summit would be to see that the problems of global climate change are addressed in a way that does not affect the development of poor countries.

The developed world believes that the developing countries must join the fight against global warming due to climate change, one of the two main agenda points of the Gleneagles summit (the other is the problem of African debt). The third world countries are not committed in any binding way under the Kyoto Protocol to control the carbon dioxide emissions from their coal-based power plants.

Singh said that in discussing “who is responsible for climate change and who should pay ”, the solutions must not perpetuate poverty of the third world.