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NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON: PM Narendra Modi pulled off yet another diplomatic coup on Friday - perhaps his biggest one - when President Barack Obama accepted his invite to visit India as chief guest of the Republic Day parade next year.
Modi broke the news himself when he tweeted on Friday evening that he had invited Obama to visit India in January.
"This Republic Day, we hope to have a friend over... invited President Obama to be the 1st US President to grace the occasion as Chief Guest," Modi tweeted in a sudden development.Within minutes, the White House confirmed the visit in a return tweet. "At the invitation of Prime Minister Modi, the President would travel to India in January 2015 to participate in the Indian Republic Day celebration in New Delhi as the Chief Guest. This visit will mark the first time a US President will have the honour of attending Republic Day, which commemorates the adoption of India's Constitution. The President will meet with the Prime Minister and Indian officials to strengthen and expand the US-India strategic partnership," the White House press secretary said.Sources said Obama's visit would require him to recalibrate the date for his State of the Union address, one of the most crucial dates on the American president's calendar. The address is typically delivered in the last week of January or the first week of February.
The big development stands out considering that the US, for a decade, publicly proclaimed that it would not give a visa to Modi. The stand was changed just before the Lok Sabha elections when Modi's success had seemed obvious.
Sources said the decision to invite Obama was taken by Modi himself who decided to go beyond the MEA's list of potential invitees to seek to scale up the Republic Day celebrations by turning the event into a major diplomatic outreach. Top government officials confirmed that the invite to the US president was the idea of the PM, who felt that the presence of the leader of the oldest democracy on the day to commemorate the foundation of the largest democracy would mark a celebration of the spirit of democracy besides giving a fillip to his effort to restore the warmth in bilateral ties.
Dwight D Eisenhower (garlanded) was the first US president to visit India on December 9, 1959. (Getty Images photo)
Sources said Modi was not deterred by the perception of Obama having been turned a lame duck after the debacle of his Democratic party in the recent mid-term polls to the US Congress, as he felt that Obama's visit, his second after 2010, will deepen the long-term engagement between two democracies — a larger goal which he thinks should not be deterred by the tenure of the incumbent and their political circumstances.
They also said Modi took the initiative during his recent meetings with the US president in Myanmar and Australia.
Obama's response was described by a senior government functionary as a breakthrough which comes close on the heels of Modi's success in getting the US to relent on its insistence that India cap its food subsidy."Following that diplomatic conversation that PM had with President Obama, a letter was sent in writing formalizing that invitation. We have now received confirmation through diplomatic channels of President Obama agreeing to come to India as the first US president for the Republic Day parade as chief guest," foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said, adding that Obama will be the first US president to come to India a second time during his term in office.
Modi's bold move is of a piece with the "out of box" approach he has tried in diplomacy — from inviting Saarc leaders for his swearing in to leveraging the growing influence of people of Indian origin for foreign policy goals. In fact, for somebody who describes himself as an outsider, Modi seems to be faring well on the foreign policy front.
By the time Obama touches down in January, Modi would have hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin who is expected to be here in December. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe have already visited Delhi after NDA took charge in May.
US President Barack Obama with the-then PM Manmohan Singh during the former's first visit to India, in New Delhi, on November 8, 2010. (TOI file photo by Neeraj Paul)
While this will be the first time that a US president, or anyone else from that country, will be chief guest for the Republic Day parade, leaders from other P-5 nations have graced the occasion, including from China in 1958 when Marshal Ye Jianying attended the parade. Even leaders from Pakistan have twice attended the parade as chief guests.
The Twitter diplomacy came on a day the US president was rocked by a furious Republican response to his immigration reform proposals even as he headed out to Las Vegas to explain his actions to the American people.
It has always been on the cards that Obama will visit India for a second time in his second term. Notwithstanding all the caterwauling from the punditocracy that US-India ties are cold/frozen/moribund/doomed etc under Obama's watch, relations have been on a continued upswing (with the occasional wrinkle), not so much because of individuals, but because the two countries have many common ideals and goals, and the people-to-people links are strong.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with US President Barack Obama during the G20 summit at Brisbane, on November 16, 2014, while Australian PM Tony Abbott looks on. (Photo courtesy Twitter)
There are more high-net worth and academically and scholastically accomplished Indians in the US than in any other country in the world, and by some accounts, more people of Indian-origin in the US than in any other country. All this was very much in evidence during the immigration wrangle on Thursday when Obama repeatedly invoked the contribution of high-skilled immigrants, including Indian-American scholars and entrepreneurs.
Aside from the economic and commercial linkages premised on India being a large market for US goods, there is the small matter of Washington's "Asia Pivot", rebalancing, and China's growing assertiveness.
While India's foreign policy under Modi has been acknowledged even by Modi's critics as a high point of the new NDA government, Obama's acceptance is nothing short of crowning glory for Modi. The PM was clearly undeterred by the noises made recently about Republic Day parade having outlived its utility.
Modi broke the news himself when he tweeted on Friday evening that he had invited Obama to visit India in January.
"This Republic Day, we hope to have a friend over... invited President Obama to be the 1st US President to grace the occasion as Chief Guest," Modi tweeted in a sudden development.Within minutes, the White House confirmed the visit in a return tweet. "At the invitation of Prime Minister Modi, the President would travel to India in January 2015 to participate in the Indian Republic Day celebration in New Delhi as the Chief Guest. This visit will mark the first time a US President will have the honour of attending Republic Day, which commemorates the adoption of India's Constitution. The President will meet with the Prime Minister and Indian officials to strengthen and expand the US-India strategic partnership," the White House press secretary said.Sources said Obama's visit would require him to recalibrate the date for his State of the Union address, one of the most crucial dates on the American president's calendar. The address is typically delivered in the last week of January or the first week of February.
The big development stands out considering that the US, for a decade, publicly proclaimed that it would not give a visa to Modi. The stand was changed just before the Lok Sabha elections when Modi's success had seemed obvious.
Sources said the decision to invite Obama was taken by Modi himself who decided to go beyond the MEA's list of potential invitees to seek to scale up the Republic Day celebrations by turning the event into a major diplomatic outreach. Top government officials confirmed that the invite to the US president was the idea of the PM, who felt that the presence of the leader of the oldest democracy on the day to commemorate the foundation of the largest democracy would mark a celebration of the spirit of democracy besides giving a fillip to his effort to restore the warmth in bilateral ties.
Dwight D Eisenhower (garlanded) was the first US president to visit India on December 9, 1959. (Getty Images photo)
Sources said Modi was not deterred by the perception of Obama having been turned a lame duck after the debacle of his Democratic party in the recent mid-term polls to the US Congress, as he felt that Obama's visit, his second after 2010, will deepen the long-term engagement between two democracies — a larger goal which he thinks should not be deterred by the tenure of the incumbent and their political circumstances.
They also said Modi took the initiative during his recent meetings with the US president in Myanmar and Australia.
Obama's response was described by a senior government functionary as a breakthrough which comes close on the heels of Modi's success in getting the US to relent on its insistence that India cap its food subsidy."Following that diplomatic conversation that PM had with President Obama, a letter was sent in writing formalizing that invitation. We have now received confirmation through diplomatic channels of President Obama agreeing to come to India as the first US president for the Republic Day parade as chief guest," foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said, adding that Obama will be the first US president to come to India a second time during his term in office.
Modi's bold move is of a piece with the "out of box" approach he has tried in diplomacy — from inviting Saarc leaders for his swearing in to leveraging the growing influence of people of Indian origin for foreign policy goals. In fact, for somebody who describes himself as an outsider, Modi seems to be faring well on the foreign policy front.
By the time Obama touches down in January, Modi would have hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin who is expected to be here in December. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe have already visited Delhi after NDA took charge in May.
US President Barack Obama with the-then PM Manmohan Singh during the former's first visit to India, in New Delhi, on November 8, 2010. (TOI file photo by Neeraj Paul)
While this will be the first time that a US president, or anyone else from that country, will be chief guest for the Republic Day parade, leaders from other P-5 nations have graced the occasion, including from China in 1958 when Marshal Ye Jianying attended the parade. Even leaders from Pakistan have twice attended the parade as chief guests.
The Twitter diplomacy came on a day the US president was rocked by a furious Republican response to his immigration reform proposals even as he headed out to Las Vegas to explain his actions to the American people.
It has always been on the cards that Obama will visit India for a second time in his second term. Notwithstanding all the caterwauling from the punditocracy that US-India ties are cold/frozen/moribund/doomed etc under Obama's watch, relations have been on a continued upswing (with the occasional wrinkle), not so much because of individuals, but because the two countries have many common ideals and goals, and the people-to-people links are strong.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with US President Barack Obama during the G20 summit at Brisbane, on November 16, 2014, while Australian PM Tony Abbott looks on. (Photo courtesy Twitter)
There are more high-net worth and academically and scholastically accomplished Indians in the US than in any other country in the world, and by some accounts, more people of Indian-origin in the US than in any other country. All this was very much in evidence during the immigration wrangle on Thursday when Obama repeatedly invoked the contribution of high-skilled immigrants, including Indian-American scholars and entrepreneurs.
Aside from the economic and commercial linkages premised on India being a large market for US goods, there is the small matter of Washington's "Asia Pivot", rebalancing, and China's growing assertiveness.
While India's foreign policy under Modi has been acknowledged even by Modi's critics as a high point of the new NDA government, Obama's acceptance is nothing short of crowning glory for Modi. The PM was clearly undeterred by the noises made recently about Republic Day parade having outlived its utility.
