Obama announces India Visit for November

Every U.S. President since Clinton has visited India but Barack H. Obama will be the first to visit during his first term.  A trip has been in discussion since last November and yesterday, while India’s Minister of External Affairs and his delegation were completing their work on the “strategic dialog” between the two countries.

Joking about the Hillary (Clinton) platter created by the ITC Maurya’s Khyber restaurant in New Delhi and pointing out that one third of his cabinet had already visited India, the President declared, “As global partners, we’re going to sustain this momentum at the highest levels.  During his state visit, the Prime Minister graciously invited me and my family to visit India this year, and I happily accepted.   And as I confirmed to him when we spoke last week, I am delighted to announce tonight that I plan to visit India in early November.   I look forward to advancing our partnership, to experiencing all that India and its people and its incredible ancient culture have to offer —- and I intend to create an “Obama Platter.”

India's Foreign Minister SM Krishna flanked by Obama and Clinton

The U.S. and India work closely on counter-terrorism measures, Secretary of State Clinton said. She said they would work to better share intelligence, train first responders and increase military cooperation. The U.S. military holds more joint exercises with India’s armed forces than with any other military in the world, Clinton said. She said that both nations agreed that service-level exchanges, security dialogues and technology transfer should be further strengthened.  The two sides also recognized “the scope for enhancement of defense trade between both countries to the mutual benefit of both sides.”