As part of the official state visit festivities today, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted a lunch for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur at the State Department this afternoon.
Biden told Singh he was so popular they couldn’t find a large enough room to host everyone who wanted to be there.
“There’s a phrase Mr. Prime Minister here in this country, you’re the hottest ticket in town,” Biden said.
Biden toasted Singh with a Gandhi quote.
“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as in being able to remake ourselves,” he said. “I would argue that as we adapt to this new century, as we enter this new era of growth and prosperity, as we remake ourselves India and America, and our partnership will help remake the world.”
Singh returned the favor, telling Biden: “To greater and greater friendship.”
Clinton said building “a strong and sustainable partnership” with India is “critical.”
“As the world’s largest democracy and the world’s oldest democracy we’re poised to collaborate on a number of fronts from strengthening our security and confronting the threat of violent extremism to fostering breakthroughs in science and technology to increasing political, economic and social opportunities for the world’s women,” she said, according to a pool report.
The eagle-eyed pool reporter sent over the seating arrangements and other prominent guests:
The vice president sat with Prime Minister Singh on his right and the prime minister’s wife, Mrs. Kaur on his left. Dr. Jill Biden sat to the left of Mrs. Kaur, followed clockwise by William Daley, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Mukesh Ambani, Governor Strickland, India Minister of External Affairs Krishna, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ratan Tata of Tata Sons, M.S. Ahluwalia the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission with the official delegation David Cote of Honeywell, President of the Univ. of Delaware Patrick Harker, Senator Chris Dodd and Indra Nooyi of Pepsi Co, who sat to the right of Prime Minister Singh.
Who else was there? Richarrd Holbrooke who stood and chatted to Nancy Pelosi before the lunch began. Also spotted: Terry McAuliffe and Sen. Chris Dodd who also chatted prior to the lunch. Sen. Joe Lieberman, Todd Stern, a special envoy for climate change issues, and Nicholas Kristoff were also seen mingling.
The menu rivaled the expected one for this evening:
Butternut squash soup, Arugula, endive and roasted pear salad with St. Pete’s Blue Cheese and Walnut Oil Vinaigrette, sun-dried tomato crusted sea bass, toasted couscous with grilled zucchini, red onion and fennel and haricots verts. Dessert was Apple Croustade with caramel and toasted pecans and vanilla ice cream and the wine was Conundrum 2007 and Ravines Pinot Noir 2007.
