Obama Visit Set To Galvanise India-U.S. Ties
WASHINGTON: Beyond the symbolism of President Barack Obama being the first U.S. president to be the chief guest at India's Republic Day, his second visit to India in four years promises to galvanise India-U.S. ties. There is also a great deal of speculation about who gains more from the visit - Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is said to have staged a diplomatic coup with his invitation to Obama or a lame-duck U.S. president half-way through his second and final term in office.
But, the real significance of the visit is the fact that Obama would be meeting Modi in a formal setting less than four months after he came calling to Washington and the two vowed to "Chalein Saath Saath: Forward Together We Go."
It would give them an opportunity to check how far they have come on the ambitious road they charted and put India-US ties back on track after months of drift over the Khobragade affair, a stalled nuclear deal, trade issues and a lot more.
"It's a really big deal," as Rick Rossow, Wadhwani chair in India in U.S.-India policy studies at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a leading Washington think tank put it at a media preview of the trip.
It shows the U.S. officials are again looking at it as a 20, 30-year relationship, ready to help India become a stronger friend and partner and willing to spend the time and energy to fix some of the problems from the past, he said.
"So it is extremely significant for the president to go back to India a second time, to do it only as an India trip, to be the guest for Republic Day. The symbolism of all this is tremendous," Rossow said expecting to see "some pretty big announcements."
Officials from both sides have been scrambling to tick things outlined in their September vision statement when Modi came quickly, seizing the hand of friendship extended by Obama, without begrudging denial of a U.S. visa for nearly a decade.
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