It’s a refrain heard repeatedly among India’s political analysts, who see calculation instead of genuine affection, with an Indian leader carefully shaping the country’s political narrative by putting himself at the center of any diplomatic achievement. He referred to Obama as “my close friend” and said the two nations would continue working “shoulder to shoulder”.
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US President Barack Obama strongly backed India’s membership into the MTCR and three other export control regime – Australia Group, Nuclear Suppliers Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement.
Yesterday when PM Modi landed in the U.S. and began his formal engagements on a solemn note by honouring sacrifice and saluting valour at Arlington National Cemetery which is the final resting place of thousands of American veterans.
It is Modi’s fourth visit to the USA since he was elected in 2014.
Brian Deese, President Obama’s top climate change advisor, said Obama and Modi are “aligned and on the same page” about the need to ratify the Paris climate deal, and that both will work toward that goal this year. After the USA, he will visit Mexico.
Modi “transcends the ancient and the modern”, Obama wrote in Time magazine.
But there is an important first this week too: Wednesday will mark the first time Modi has been invited to address a Joint Meeting of Congress in the House Chamber – an honor bestowed on just a few world leaders every year. Human rights activists have long alleged that Modi was complicit; India’s courts have been unable to prove any truth to those claims. The U.S.is also expected to help India join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a club of countries trading materials for nuclear energy.
As recently as 2005, the USA denied Modi a travel visa after human rights groups accused him of not doing enough to stem the violence three years earlier during religious riots in Gujarat, the state he governed. “Then what we’ve tried to do is nest it in these worldwide bodies and protocols so that, again, India is in a stronger position to be a good citizen on proliferation- related issues”, Rhodes said. US lawmakers say it’s still too hard for Americans to invest in India, even with some easing of restrictions under Modi. American officials largely avoided contact with him over suspicions that he was involved in the rioting or did not do enough to stop them, until he became prime minister in the 2014 landslide elections.
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Relations between the countries are not always easy – India insists on staying out of formal alliances and forging its own course – but both leaders can boast that ties have improved. Statues from left: Idol of Saint Manikkavichavakar also known as Sampanthar, Parvati, from South India, Tamil Nadu Chola Dynasty 12th century, and Jain Figure of Bahubali, from South India, probably Karnataka 14th century.
