By Arun Kumar and Manish Chand
Washington, Nov 23 (IANS) A day before he sits down for talks with President Barack Obama, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday outlined his vision of a strategic relationship with the US and said they were finalising the details of the nuclear deal that will make their landmark atomic agreement “fully operational”.

“We are currently finalising the details that will make the (nuclear) agreement fully operational,” he told a select gathering of top US business leaders at the US India Business Council (USIBC).

“Once that is done, it will remove restrictions on the flow of technology in nuclear and many other areas,” Manmohan Singh said ahead of his Tuesday summit with President Barack Obama.

“This will open a large area of commercial opportunities for US business,” he said while pitching for greater American investment in areas ranging from infrastructure to agriculture and defence.

Assuring American business that India will continue down the road for economic reforms and will recover its economic growth rate of nine percent dented by the global economic crisis in two years, Manmohan Singh said: “You should have no doubt on that score.”

“The economic reforms of the past have brought us advantages and I can assure you that we will continue down the road,” he said.

The prime minister also announced that India and US will Tuesday sign a memorandum of understanding on energy security, clean energy and climate change to pave the way for cooperation of American companies in these areas.

“This will provide a framework for pursuing bilateral cooperation in specific areas,” he said, noting that these are areas where American companies are leaders in the field. “We should explore possible areas of cooperation.”

After the signing of MoU Tuesday, a number of collaborative projects are likely to be announced soon, official sources told IANS.

“A web of economic relationships intensifies both business-to-business and people to people contacts, promoting a deeper and better understanding between countries,” Manmohan Singh said.

“That is the kind of relationship we want with the United States,” he said, adding American business has been part of India’s economic transformation.

Noting that American business has played a vital role in transforming the India-US relationship into a strategic partnership, the prime minister invited them “to stay engaged as we transform India from a low income country into a vibrant market of over a billion people, with steadily growing purchasing power”.