No Stops For Prime Minister Narendra Modi In U.S

But despite the optics, there is cautious optimism on the outcome of the Modi visit which is expected to be primarily focused on economic ties, defence, trade and technology exchanges.

Trade between the two countries has grown from only $5.6 billion in 1990 to over $63 billion in 2013, according to the US Census Bureau.

And as a State Department backgrounder noted, the two are "developing their defence partnership through military sales and joint research, co-production and co-development efforts".

"India has moved forward, albeit haltingly, with market-oriented economic reforms that began in 1991," the backgrounder said noting, "Recent reforms have included an increasingly liberal foreign investment regime in many sectors."

But nothing major is expected in regard to the landmark India-US nuclear deal that has stalled over India's tough liability law.

Addressing the liability issue still remains "the biggest and most pressing issue on trying to advance the civil nuclear cooperation," according to Nisha Desai Biswal, assistant secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs.

As the 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain told a Washington think tank recently, "Too often, our relationship has felt like a laundry list of initiatives, some quite worthy, that amounts to no more than the sum of its parts."

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