Sonia to host farewell dinner on May 14

NEW DELHI: As he prepares to demit office, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has written farewell letters to leaders of various countries, including US President Barack Obama, former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian President Vladimir Putin.Singh, who also wrote to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has generally conveyed his thanks to them while recalling how they had worked together all these years, sources said.Wen has sent his response to Singh. In his hand-written letter, the former Chinese Premier has expressed his admiration for Singh's leadership and helping in fostering better relations between the two countries, the sources said.Singh and Wen met over a dozen times as they enjoyed good rapport.Wen, after demitting office, showed a special gesture of hosting a lunch for Singh when he visited Beijing last year.Recalling their relationship, Wen had remarked that the two leaders had been like "two drivers with steady hands on the wheels, driving in the right direction."Singh and Obama also had three summit-level talks besides meeting several times on the sidelines of multilateral fora since the US President took over in 2009.Similarly, Singh has met Putin a number of times, including having annual summits.Manmohan Singh is being given a farewell dinner by congress president Sonia Gandhi on May 14. A memento is expected to be presented to Singh signed by all CWC Members and Union ministers, sources said. The dinner by Gandhi, who is also UPA chairperson, comes two days before the announcement of results of Lok Sabha elections.The Prime Minister would be demitting office on May 17, a day after the Lok Sabha elections results are announced.He had earlier this year announced his retirement, after a decade at the helm of two successive United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments.On the eve of his demitting office, the Prime Minister is to "address the people" in a farewell speech.Congress leaders had always spoken of the relationship between the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi as an ideal division of labour, which saw perfect harmonization between the government and the party.AICC has always maintained that there cannot be any better relationship between a party president and a Prime Minister and had often dismissed as "rumours and disinformation" reports of differences between the two.