President Barack Obama began his 10-day trip to Asia in India today where he paid tribute to the victims of the devastating terror attacks that tore through Mumbai two years ago.
Speaking at the Taj Mahal hotel, a target of the 60-hour siege that killed 166 people across the Indian city, the president vowed: “We’ll never forget,” and said he intended to send a signal by staying at the hotel during his visit to the city.
“The United States and India stand united,” he added.
The president met privately with relatives of those killed in the November 2008 attack and joined First Lady Michelle Obama to visit an outdoor memorial, a fountain with floating flowers, just off the lobby at the Taj.
He also signed a memorial book, writing, “The United States stands in solidarity with all of Mumbai and all of India in working to eradicate the scourge of terrorism.”
But illustrating the difficulties of the US-India relationship even as Mr Obama began a trip aimed at strengthening it, Indian commentators quickly seized on the president’s failure in his spoken remarks to mention Pakistan.
Pakistan was the home of the 10 assailants, the place where they trained and the base they used to launch the attack. Pakistan is also India’s arch-rival but is key to Washington and its allies in the war in Afghanistan.
Mr Obama said the US and India were working together more closely than ever to keep their people safe, describing the countries as “two partners that will never waver in our defence of our people”.
The president then visited a museum in a home where Mohandas Gandhi once lived. Signing a guest book there, Mr Obama wrote that Gandhi “is a hero not just to India, but to the world”, while his wife promised to “always treasure” the visit.
Mr Obama will address American and Indian business leaders later and is expected to announce trade and export deals worth billions to the United States.
Mr Obama will also visit Indonesia, South Korea and Japan on a 10-day tour that will see Washington push to prevent countries unilaterally devaluing currencies to protect their exports, a top theme at the Group of 20 heads of state meet in Seoul next week.
Mr Obama's Saturday-to-Monday trip to India started just four days after his Democratic party sustained big election losses tied to the weak economy, raising some doubts over how much the trip can yield given the pressures at home.
But Mr Obama clearly outlined that his goal was to strike "billions of dollars in contracts that will support tens of thousands of American jobs", and stated his intent to "reduce barriers to United States exports and increase access to the Indian market".
"It is hard to overstate the importance of Asia to our economic future," Mr Obama wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times on Friday.
"It can be tempting, in times of economic difficulty, to turn inward, away from trade and commerce with other nations. But in our interconnected world, that is not a path to growth, and that is not a path to jobs. We cannot be shut out of these markets."
On the agenda will be lucrative defence ties. The United States has held more military exercises with India in the past year than any other country, and US firms Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp are bidding for a $11 billion deal for 126 fighter jets.
But first, Mr Obama will have to counter Indian perceptions he has relegated Asia's third-largest economy behind rivals China and Pakistan and has not recognised its growing global weight.
Reuters