US President Barack Obama will visit India in January following an invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to him to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi.
“At the invitation of Prime Minister Modi, the President will travel to India in January 2015 to participate in the Indian Republic Day celebration in New Delhi as the chief guest,” the White House said in a statement on Friday.
Noting that it would be the first time that a US President would have the honour of attending India’s R-Day celebrations, the statement put out by Press Secretary Josh Earnest said: “The President will meet the Prime Minister and Indian officials to strengthen and expand the US-India strategic partnership.”
Prior to the White House announcement, Prime Minister Modi had tweeted: “This Republic Day, we hope to have a friend over…invited President Obama to be the 1st US President to grace the occasion as chief guest.”
Interestingly, the US National Security Council too confirmed President Obama’s acceptance via Twitter: “President Obama will meet w/ @narendramodi and Indian officials to strengthen and expand the US-#India strategic partnership. Visit will mark 1st time US president will have honor of attending Republic Day, which commemorates adoption of India’s
Constitution #India.”
This will be Obama’s second visit to India during his tenure as the US President. Obama had last visited India in November 2010 during the UPA Government’s regime when Dr Manmohan Singh was the PM.
India had placed huge Defense orders including for C-17 Globemasters which Obama had said would help in creating more than 50,000 jobs in the US. Obama’s stay in India in 2010 was one of his longest foreign trips, during which he addressed a joint session of Parliament and declared, in a major policy shift, the support of United States for India’s permanent membership of an expanded UN Security Council.
Obama’s second visit to India as President comes close on the heels of Prime Minister Modi’s recent US visit, during which they struck an instant bond, with the slogan of “Chalein Saath Saath” and coming out with a vision statement for “a transformative relationship as trusted partners” that would be “a model for the rest of the world”.
Modi and Obama had recently met in Myanmar and Australia where they attended the East Asia Summit and the G20 summit respectively. During a brief interaction with Modi at Nay Pyi Taw in Myanmar, Obama called him “a man of action”.
Obama’s visit is seen as a big diplomatic coup for Modi, who has met almost all the top world leaders within the short span of five months after taking over as Indian PM. Modi invited Obama during his visit to USA in September when he had gone to attend the United Nations General Assembly. The invite to be the chief guest for Republic Day parade was extended to Obama during Modi’s bilateral meetings with the US President.
Modi’s visit also led to resolving of the India-US differences in the WTO. Obama has recently announced changes in USA’s immigration policy. The move stands to benefit about 4.5 lakh illegal immigrants from India.
It is believed that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had stayed back in USA to work out the modalities for Obama’s visit.modalities for Obama’s visit.