Friday, January 30, 2015

Evaluating the Presidential Visit to India

President Obama went to India last week. Here are some articles on the topic.

  • Sputnik, 22JAN2015: Russia Ready to Supply India With Anaerobic Submarines
  • BBC, 26JAN2015: China media: India-US ties 'superficial'
  • BBC, 26JAN2015: Obama in India: Why president's visit is also about China
  • BBC, 26JAN2015: Media praise India-US nuclear agreement
  • AFP, 27JAN2015: Pakistan opposes new India-US nuclear deal
  • AFP, 27JAN2015: Obama wraps India visit with pleas on religion, climate
  • BBC, 27JAN2015: No US-India deal on climate change
  • BBC, 27JAN2015: Obama: US and India can be 'best partners'
  • BBC, 27JAN2015: Why Obama's India visit charts new course

    The trip is being touted as some sort of game-changer - that last BBC article claims that the trip "charts a new course". I'm not sure it's that significant. India's most prolific arms supplier is Russia, and that's an old relationship that India isn't going to jeopardize. Various players' complex relationships with Pakistan also complicate matters; in December, I posted a link purge in which I linked to this podcast discussing Pakistan, and a few weeks ago War on the Rocks released a podcast entitled Podcast: South Asia Meets East Asia that should also be required listening on the topic of South Asia. I think that the United States and India should be natural partners - both Pakistan and China are of long-term concern to both nations - but it's important not to overemphasize something that's encumbered by multiple significant complications.
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