Obama, India's Modi cite nuclear investment breakthrough
NEW DELHI — President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday they reached "a breakthrough understanding" in freeing up U.S. investment in nuclear energy development in India, as Obama began a three-day visit to India.
Picking up from a stalled 2008 civil nuclear agreement between the two countries, the deal would allow U.S. firms to invest in energy in India. It also resolves a dispute over U.S. insistence on tracking fissile material it supplies to the country and over Indian liability provisions that have discouraged U.S. firms from capitalizing on the agreement
The White House said the understanding on India's civil nuclear program resolves the U.S. concerns on both tracking and liability. "In our judgment, the Indians have moved sufficiently on these issues to give us assurances that the issues are resolved," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser.
As Obama began his second trip to India – a first for a U.S. president – both he and Modi said they hoped to reach other agreements on defense, trade and environmental issues.
During a news conference with Modi, Obama said the political vacuum in Yemen hasn't affected U.S. counterterrorism operations in the country. Shiite rebels overran the capital Sanaa last week and President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his ministers resigned.
Obama also said his administration is "deeply concerned" about the latest violence in eastern Ukraine, and that he'll keep trying to isolate Russia and will examine options short of military conflict with Russia.
"Your election and your strong personal commitment to the U.S.-India relationship gives us an opportunity to further energize these efforts," Obama said.
"Barack and I have formed a bond, a friendship," Modi said. "We can laugh and joke and talk easily on the phone. The chemistry that has brought Barack and me closer has also brought Washington and Delhi closer."
On Monday, Obama will be the first U.S. president to preside as a guest over India's Republic Day celebrations, marking the 65th anniversary of India's constitution. That invitation underscores the importance of the ties.
"This is a very symbolically significant event — it's the biggest invitation India has to offer to a foreign head of state and in the past India has been wary of inviting the United States given that the two countries have not always had the warmest of relationships," said Sanjay Kumar, a political scientist at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi.
"In one instance, at least, America declined the invitation as well," he added. "So it's a huge achievement for Modi to get such a powerful leader as the presiding guest. It symbolizes the beginning of a friendlier chapter between the two nations. It's also symbolic of a new post-Modi era in India's foreign policy."
At the beginning of the visit, Modi broke protocol to personally welcome Obama with a hug as he disembarked from Air Force One in New Delhi. The warmth of this relationship between the two leaders — which was on display on Modi's September visit to the USA — has been a source of surprise in both countries.
Obama later walked in his socks into a walled courtyard to lay a large white wreath at the site where Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India's independence movement, was cremated, and then shoveled dirt and poured a pitcher of water around a young tree planted in his honor at the memorial.
As Obama and Modi opened their talks Sunday, the prime minister presented the president with a copy of a 1950 telegram from the United States congratulating India on the adoption of its constitution.
Modi was banned from the USA for almost a decade over his alleged role in permitting the massacre of 2,000 Muslims when he was the governor of Gujarat in 2002. Obama lifted the ban last year after Modi took office, and the September visit began warming up ties that had been strained for years.
"Forging deeper ties between our two nations has been a key part of my foreign policy since I took office," Obama told India Today weekly magazine. "(It) can be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century."
Part of that is due to India's surging economy, say analysts. Since taking office, the Modi administration has focused on economic progress and fulfilling the prime minister's campaign pledges of downsizing India's notoriously bloated bureaucracy, curbing widespread corruption and strengthening overseas trade.
While it is too soon to tell if the reforms are taking root, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund recently predicted that India would surpass China as the fastest growing economy in the world in the next two years.
Analysts said the trip won't yield everything the U.S. is looking for. "It's unclear what the two will achieve — the nuclear liability bill is a given — but on broader, more crucial issues like cross border terrorism, and Pakistan, President Obama is in not in a great position to offer India anything on that front," said Kumar. "He is not as strong as when he last came to India five years ago, and besides, America may not want to discuss a third country at this stage."
New Delhi prepared for the event for weeks, and locals said they were pleased about the visit's impact.
"It's very exciting – they have fixed the road and whitewashed all the buildings near my school because President Obama will take that road," said Reshama Patil, a school teacher. "Everything is looking perfect, first class. … He should come more often."
The chaotic streets of the city were cleared during the visit, with security forces visible at road blocks and along the route the president was to travel from the airport. Some said they hoped security in the country would improve.
"I will be on duty around the clock, the entire police force has been mobilized in Delhi, security is our major concern," said N. Trivedi, a police officer on duty Sunday (It's common in India to have an initial as a name). "I am too small a fish to want or expect anything from the president of America but if he can do something about all this terrorism from Pakistan, that would be helpful for us."
In a phone call from India on Sunday, Obama offered his condolences to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after an online video purportedly showed that a Japanese hostage was murdered by the Islamic State group.
A video released by the extremist group — also known as ISIL or ISIS — on Saturday shows freelance journalist Kenji Goto holding a photo that purportedly shows the dead body of the second hostage, Haruna Yukawa.
High on Obama's agenda with Modi is progress on getting heavily polluted India to agree to curb carbon emissions. White House officials hope the surprise climate agreement the U.S. struck with China in November might spur India to take similar steps, though that's unlikely to happen during Obama's visit.
Obama is cutting his trip short to go to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to pay respect to the royal family following the death of King Abdullah. In doing so, the White House had to cancel a tour by the president and first lady of the Taj Mahal, the famed white marble monument to love in the city of Agra.
On Saturday, India's communist parties held a protest march and burned an effigy of Obama, voicing fears of a U.S. domination in economic, nuclear and defense ties with India. "Barack Obama, Hands Off India," chanted nearly 100 protesters during their march in New Delhi.
Contributing: The Associated Press