Obama in India Jan 25-27 |
U.S. President Barack Obama will have a tight schedule during his three-day visit starting January 25 and ending January 27. He will hold talks with top leaders in New Delhi on ways to make progress on key issues such as defense and civil nuclear agreement and attend the Republic Day celebrations as the Chief Guest, among other engagements. Obama will be the first U.S. President to be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day parade and will be accompanied by his wife Michelle and a team of senior officials in his administration. The American President and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold comprehensive talks on the entire gamut of bilateral ties and discuss ways to enhance cooperation in key components, including civil nuclear and defense pacts. The two sides have already decided to renew for 10 years during a Summit meeting in September in Washington to start joint development and production of military hardware. The visit is also expected to give a fillip to the seven-year-old civil nuclear deal as the cooperation in the sector has been stalled over the tough provisions in the Civil Nuclear Liability Act here. During the September meeting, the two leaders had decided to set up a high-level Contact Group on civil nuclear cooperation. The Group has already held two rounds of detailed discussions on a range of implementation issues, including administrative, liability, technical and licensing to facilitate the establishment of US-designed nuclear power plants in India. The two sides are also reportedly working on a proposal for an insurance pool by the domestic Indian companies to offset the financial burden of American entities as both countries are keen to have a concrete deliverable in the area during Obama`s visit. After their meeting, Modi and Obama will make press statements. The U.S. President will also attend the banquet in his honor by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhawan. On second day of the visit, Obama will attend the Republic Day parade and later, along with Modi, will take part in Indo-US CEO roundtable. India and U.S. are likely to sign a new 10-year defense framework agreement, Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar admitted. Parrikar pointed out that the focus would not be on procurement but on joint development of technology and technology transfer. There is an existing technology and trade cooperation which can be expanded. But the most significant aspect of the new deal is the Defense Trade and Technology Initiative, aimed at enhancing the existing one under the Defense Policy Group, and laying out the path for future defense cooperation. The U.S. is pushing for what it calls `transformative defense technologies` for co-development and co-production with India under DTTI, which could become the hallmark of the Modi government`s `Make in India` initiative. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said on January 11th in Gandhinagar that the two sides would try to make progress on key issues like defense and civil nuclear agreement. Kerry added they will try to make progress on issues like defense agreements, civil nuclear agreement as well as economic progress. The existing framework agreement expires this year and was signed in the U.S. in 2005.
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