US Secretary of State John Kerry will use his upcoming trip to Ahmedabad for the Vibrant Gujarat summit to hold discussions with Indian officials as part of the preparations for President Barack Obama’s visit to New Delhi to be the chief guest at this year’s Republic Day celebrations.
“While he (Kerry) is there, he’ll have meetings with a range of officials… Certainly, they’ll be discussing the President’s upcoming trip as well as our economic relationship, our strategic relationship, our relationship on issues like energy,” State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters.
The United States is treating the summit of global investors, being inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as “a very important event” in which the US is participating for the first time as a partner country. “The Secretary is looking forward to having those discussions,” Psaki said, noting that he would be briefing President Obama on the deliberations.
Obama himself is gearing up for his annual State of the Union address on January 20 with a series of domestic tours in advance of laying out his agenda before what would for the first time of his presidency be a Republican-controlled Congress.
Despite the defeat in the November polls, Obama strongly defended his economic management, asserting: “America’s resurgence is real. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise….last year, 2014, was the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s. Since the 1990s, We’ve now had a 57-month streak of private sector job creation. We’ve created nearly 11 million new jobs. That’s the longest stretch in our history of private sector, uninterrupted job creation.”
Speaking in Wayne, Michigan — the first stop of his three-day roadshow — Obama said: “We’ve got the best cards and we are doing better than just about anybody else on Earth. And now that we’ve got some calmer waters, now that the worst of the crisis is behind us, if we all do our part, if we all pitch in, then we can make sure that this rising tide is actually lifting all the boats, not just some.”
Obama, who is following up with tours of Arizona and Tennessee, said the uplift of the middle class will guide his policy agenda. “That’s going to be the focus of my State of the Union address in a couple of weeks— building on the progress that we’ve already made,” he said, noting “I’ve only got two years left in office”.