US PRESIDENT Barack Obama arrives in India today on a three-day official trip that promises to be high on ceremony and sentiment but somewhat low on tangible “deliverables”.
Officials from both sides were not fuelling expectations on any major announcement or initiative during Mr Obama’s visit. The purpose of the visit is to deepen bilateral ties by discussing a raft of outstanding issues, they said.
According to Mr Obama the core purpose of the trip, aimed at highlighting the US’s increasing engagement with Asia and also taking in Indonesia, South Korea and Japan, is to open up markets “in some of the fastest-growing regions in the world, and to create jobs in the US”.
“My hope is that we’ve got some specific announcements that show the connection between what we’re doing overseas and what happens here at home when it comes to job growth and economic growth,” the US president said in Washington on Thursday.
Over 200 US corporate chiefs are accompanying Mr Obama, including Jeffrey Inmelt of GE, seeking to sell to India civil nuclear equipment worth billions of dollars. They are to attend a meeting of business leaders in Bombay (Mumbai), where the US president begins his visit at the weekend as part of the trade push. Some contract announcements are expected.
Bilateral trade – on track to hit $50 billion (€35.6 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 2011, has more than doubled since 2004.
Analysts said the anticipated deals were expected to neutralise earlier criticism by Mr Obama of US corporations outsourcing operations to India, and his penalising of them for doing so.
Overall discussions will take forward long-pending issues such as the easing of US curbs on hi-tech, dual-use technology imposed on New Delhi after its 1998 nuclear tests; stalled export of US civilian nuclear equipment and deepening military, security and counter-terrorism ties. “Discussions so far have covered a lot of ground and we are reasonably optimistic of the outcome,” said foreign secretary Nirupma Rao.
The deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, India’s role in bringing stability to that country and India’s continuing turbulent relations with nuclear rival Pakistan are to feature prominently in summit-level talks on Monday between Mr Obama and Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh.
Washington views India as a counterbalance to an economically and militarily resurgent China, and wants to enhance trade and develop its strategic and defence relationship with New Delhi.
“You have a rising China that is now starting to get a bit aggressive toward its neighbours,” said Walter Andersen, a former US state department official at Johns Hopkins University’s school of advanced international studies. India and Japan were the balancing powers in Asia, he added.
Mr Obama hopes to appreciably increase US defence sales to New Delhi, which since 2001 have totalled around $12-13 billion.
Talks are at an advanced stage to supply additional aircraft worth over $6 billion.
Other US equipment including fighter jets, transport and attack helicopters and missiles worth $15-20 billion are under trial or review – or both.
Security for Mr Obama on the trip is high, with US warships patrolling the Arabian Sea off Bombay. He is staying at the Taj Mahal hotel – the focus of a bloody siege two years ago in which 166 people died.
US surveillance and eavesdropping equipment has been deployed across Mumbai, where jammers will block all mobile phones in the vicinity of the president.