New Delhi, Dec 1 (IANS) Close on the heels of the two leaders’ meeting in Washington last week, US President Barack Obama called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday morning to discuss his new Afghanistan-Pakistan policy.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the two leaders in a brief conversation discussed the situation in Afghanistan and the steps that could be taken to bring peace and stability to the strife-torn country.

Obama is expected to announce a “surge” of thousands of US troops to fight the Taliban insurgency and outline an exit strategy from Afghanistan. The US administration is mulling over the military proposal to send 30,000 to 35,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan, the largest single US troop deployment since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Obama is expected to make several calls to world leaders in the coming days to brief them on the issue and rally support.

“The two leaders also discussed the forthcoming summit on climate change in Copenhagen,” the PMO said.

The prime minister told the president that “India will play a constructive role in the negotiations and looked forward to a successful outcome”, the PMO statement said.