NEW DELHI, 12 September 2005 — India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said yesterday he will push for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and discuss civilian nuclear energy cooperation when he visits the United States this week to attend a United Nations summit of world leaders.

“It is our intention to further expand cooperation in the fields of trade and investment, defense, space, civilian nuclear energy, advanced science and technology,” Manmohan told reporters before his departure.

Manmohan, who left for Paris en route to New York, will also meet with Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to discuss the ongoing peace effort to end decades of enmity between Islamabad and New Delhi.

In Paris, Manmohan plans to meet with French President Jacques Chirac, who has long supported giving civilian nuclear technologies to India and New Delhi’s claim to a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Manmohan’s meeting with Chirac comes days after British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited New Delhi and said the European Union and India will discuss how they can cooperate in civilian nuclear energy. Britain currently holds the presidency of the European Union.

In New York, Manmohan plans to meet with US President George W. Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders on the sidelines of the summit. India will “present its case” for expanding the security council, he said.

He will also attend a high-level meeting to review the implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals, adopted a decade ago.

Manmohan will meet with American business leaders and other top officials in the Bush administration. “My visit gives an opportunity to interact with the CEOs of important US companies interested in India,” he said.

India and the United States have increased their defense cooperation in recent months. The navies of the two countries will conduct a 12-day joint exercise off the southern Indian coast beginning today.

The exercise, codenamed “SALVEX,” will be the first combined diving, salvage and survey exercise by the two navies, a statement issued by the Indian Navy said.

“The Indian Navy and the US Navy regularly conduct the Malabar series of bilateral exercises. SALVEX, being conducted off Kochi (in southern Kerala state), is part of this ongoing cooperation,” the statement added.

The US Navy’s USS Safeguard will participate in the exercise. A naval diving team and INS Matanga will represent the Indian Navy.

The exercise, due to end Sept. 23, includes deployment of underwater salvage teams of divers from both navies.

During Manmohan’s meeting with Bush in New York, Iran’s nuclear activities are sure to figure. Events of the past week have left India walking a delicate diplomatic tightrope between its traditional ties with Iran and hopes of US cooperation in moving forward on its civilian nuclear energy program.

America’s top diplomat and its congressional leaders made it clear that Bush’s promise to Manmohan earlier this year that Washington would help New Delhi develop its civilian nuclear energy program might be impacted by India’s support of a similar program for Iran.

India has traditionally had strong ties with Iran and now is hoping a proposed $8 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline will help offset its large and ever-increasing energy needs.

Senior lawmaker Tom Lantos made it clear at the House International Relations Committee hearing on Thursday that the Bush-Manmohan “deal” was at risk if India failed to support the United States in its bid to punish Iran for its nuclear program, which the United States says Tehran is using to develop nuclear weapons.

A day later, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at a State Department conference that Washington was looking for leadership on the Iran nuclear issue from Russia, China and India as well as the three European nations involved in negotiations with Tehran on its nuclear program.

Rice warned that if Iran did not abide by its international commitments, the United States would push for a Security Council referral. The UN Security Council has the power to impose economic sanctions on Iran.

Diplomatic sources in New Delhi said India is against the matter going to the Security Council and wants it to be resolved before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog. IAEA member states are scheduled to meet in Vienna later this month, and Iran was expected to figure prominently on the agenda.