When Donald Trump visits India on Feb. 24, in his first state visit, he will become the seventh sitting U.S. president to visit the country. The first U.S. president to visit India was President Dwight Eisenhower who went to India on September 9, 1959. He met with then President Rajendra Prasad and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and addressed Parliament.
While nobody is ready to write off the relations marked by warmth and cordiality, especially under the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, there are serious concerns regarding the continuation of the relations on an even keel, particularly on trade and business fronts.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, obviously in an effort to alleviate the recent frictions between Washington and New Delhi, has declared that the Trump administration is all in with regard to the U.S.-India strategic relationship, but hopes “our Indian friends will drop their trade barriers and trust in the competitiveness of their exporters and private-sector companies.”
Former senior Bush and Obama administration officials and Indian American community leaders, who worked closely with India’s newly minted External Affairs Minister, Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, 64, in his earlier avatars as foreign secretary and India’s Ambassador to the U.S., in interviews with India Abroad, have hailed his appointment and lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making such an impeccable choice.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voting on Feb. 28 strictly on party lines, advanced Neomi Rao’s controversial nomination to replace Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Court of Appeals — considered the nation’s second most powerful court — to the Senate floor for a full vote.
I first met the then Vice President George H.W. Bush in 1987 when I was invited to a bill signing ceremony by President Ronald Reagan. I was v…
For the first time in 15 years, it is not likely that the White House will host a Diwali celebration. Senior administration sources told India Abroad that with the focus on keeping the Republican majority in Congress in the midterm elections “and everything else that’s going on, organizing a Diwali event this year has not been something we’ve been thinking about.”
When North Carolina Art professor got a call from the Secret Service to tutor former president George Bush, Vijay Tonape knew he had to seize the opportunity. Security checks followed, and lo and behold, the Mumbai native and chairman of the art department at Methodist University in Fayetteville had a new student.
