NEW YORK: President Barack Obama will leave Friday, Nov 5 on his maiden visit to India. The fact that the President will spend three days in India, the longest single foreign visit of his presidency so far, the fact that this follows the first state visit of the Obama presidency by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year, the fact that India is the first stop on a trip to four major Asian Democratic partners – all of that underscores the significance and the potential of US-India partnership.
Day 1 in Mumbai
Reaching Mumbai on Nov 6, first event that the President will do will be a statement at the Taj Hotel where he’s staying, to commemorate the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
The Taj, where the President is staying, was a centerpiece of the terrorist attacks in November 2008 in Mumbai. The President, who wanted to take the time to pay his respects to the victims who lost their lives and to sign the guest book there, will also make some brief remarks to an assembled group of people who are connected to those attacks.
From that event at the Taj Hotel he’ll visit the Gandhi Museum. The example of Gandhi is one that has inspired Americans, inspired African Americans, including Dr. King, and it’s very personally important to the President and he is apparently looking forward to visiting the Gandhi Museum to underscore the shared experiences and shared values between India and the US.
From the Gandhi museum, the President’s entourage will move on to a business summit that the US-India Business Council has put together.
The President will participate in three events at the business summit. The first is a roundtable with entrepreneurs. The second is a roundtable with some US CEOs where they’ll be able to discuss the challenges and opportunities around doing business in India. That day in Mumbai, the President will meet with various groups of business people, a group of Indian entrepreneurs who are importing US technology and applying them to the Indian marketplace, and a group of US CEOs, major CEOs, who will have a dialogue with the President about doing business in India and what can be done to expand it. He’ll then give a speech to the US-India Business Council-CII-FICCI business summit in Mumbai and talk about the economic relationship and the potential that it has.
The speech the President will give that day is kind of the centerpiece of the day, again, focusing this day on the US-India economic relationship, the enormous potential for both countries to expand growth and opportunity for Americans through that relationship.
Day 2 in Mumbai
The second day has a number of events that are focused on the future partnership that the US is trying to build with India – a relationship that the US believes is going to be indispensable to shaping the 21st century.
The President will begin the day by visiting a local school in Mumbai. Being the festive day of Diwali that day, the President will participate in celebrations around the Diwali holiday at the school that morning.
Then he’ll go to a town hall with university students, and at that town hall he will, again, have the opportunity to talk about the future, speaking to young people about the future partnership that the US is trying to build as the two countries take their relationship to a new level.
On the margins of that town hall, there will be a couple of roundtable events that will focus on particular areas of partnership that the US and India are pursuing. One is on agriculture and food security. America’s partnership with India has been strong having had tremendous success in helping list some of India’s people out of poverty through agricultural innovation.
The President sees this as an opportunity to talk about that partnership, and also its potential to service our broader food security initiatives in places like Africa, as well as continuing to advance our bilateral cooperation with India.
Secondly, furthering his commitment to open government to advance democracy around the world, the President will highlight some of the successful innovations that India has as the world’s largest democracy in terms of the ways in which it uses technology and innovation to empower its citizens and civil society.
The President’s main public event that day is the town hall, which is its own event there in Mumbai.
Moving on to Delhi
Moving on to Delhi from Mumbai, the first event that the President will do in Delhi is a cultural stop. He’s going to visit Humayan’s tomb, which is one of the great cultural marvels in New Delhi. The President felt it was important to give the rich civilization that India has to pay tribute to that through this stop.
And then that night, the President and First Lady Michelle Obama will have a private dinner with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan.
The President has had a very close personal relationship with Prime Minister Singh from his first meeting in London at the G20. As much as any leader in the world, Prime Minister Singh is somebody who has had a close intellectual connection with the President on a range of issues surrounding economic growth and development, so President Obama is very much looking forward to this opportunity to have a private dinner with the Prime Minister.
Day 2 in Delhi
Then the next day in New Delhi is the official program. It will begin with a wreath-laying at Gandhi’s Samadhi at Rajghat, another opportunity for the President to pay respects to that huge historical figure in India’s as well as world history.
Then the President will have a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Singh. And they’ll have a press conference after that bilateral meeting.
Throughout the day, the President could have a number of meetings with other Indian officials.
And then the main event of this day is the President’s address to the Indian parliament that afternoon. The President has been invited by the Indians to speak before their Parliament, and, here he will address the broad range of issues on which the US and India cooperate – political, security and economic – and the alignment the US has with the Indians on a number of issues.
And then that night is the state dinner. The President will meet with President Pratibha Patil before that dinner, and then he and the First Lady will attend the state dinner.
President Obama and the First Lady will spend the night in New Delhi before leaving for Jakarta, Indonesia on Tuesday, Nov 9.
The First Lady’s schedule
First Lady Michelle Obama will be accompanying President Obama on most events both in Mumbai and Delhi such as the Mumbai town hall, the Diwali celebration and other cultural stops.
She is also expected to do a couple of independent events related to education and the empowerment of women and girls.
Being their school year, First children, Sasha and Malia, are not joining the President and the First Lady.
