Obama fails to mention Pakistan, causing controversy

[fatman17]

Military News Ticker
voanews.com - 2010-11-06

Obama fails to mention Pakistan, causing controversy

Obama flew into Mumbai and announced that the United States would relax export controls over sensitive technology and that will help deepen U.S. ties with the emerging global power and its economy.

President Barack Obama announced $10 billion in business deals on Saturday as he arrived in India to boost U.S. exports and jobs after a mauling in mid-term polls, but he ran into immediat controversy over Pakistan.

Obama flew into Mumbai, India's financial hub, and announced the United States would also relax export controls over sensitive technology, a demand of India's that will help deepen U.S. ties with the emerging global power and its trillion dollar economy. While most of the announced deals had been pending for months, Obama's visit, the first leg of a 10-day Asian tour, has been hailed as moving the United States closer to India as Washington tries to revive a weak economy and gather support to pressure China on its currency. "The United States sees Asia, especially India, as the market of the future," Obama told a meeting of U.S. and Indian business leaders. "There still exists a caricature of India as a land of call centres and back-offices that cost American jobs. But these old stereotypes, these old concerns, ignore today's realities." Obama's first act was to pay tribute to victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, but he was criticised for making no reference to India's traditional foe Pakistan, which New Delhi blames for harbouring anti-India militants. Pakistan-based militants killed 166 people in a 60-hour rampage through India's financial hub, gunning down their victims at luxury hotels, a train station and a Jewish centre. India says elements in the Pakistan state were behind the attacks. "We visit here to send a very clear message," Obama said after meeting victims' families at the luxury sea-front Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, the iconic landmark where TV images showing it in flames after battles between militants and commandos came to symbolise the massacre. "In our determination to give our people a future of security and prosperity, the United States and India stand united." Saturday's Taj speech highlighted the diplomatic test for Obama.

Indians want a strong statement against Pakistan for fostering militants, but Washington must tread a fine line between appeasing New Delhi and supporting U.S. regional ally Islamabad.

But Obama's trip is also about business, with China now ahead of the United States in trade with India.The $10 billion in deals will support 54,000 jobs in the United States, White House aide Michael Froman said. The White House also announced Obama would support India's membership of four global non-proliferation organisations, a move that will reassure New Delhi -- left out of these groups after its 1998 nuclear tests -- that Washington is recognising its global clout.

Obama will also visit Indonesia, South Korea and Japan on the Asian tour that will see Washington push to prevent countries unilaterally devaluing currencies to protect their exports, a top theme at the Group of 20 heads of state meet in Seoul next week. Obama flew by helicopter to the Mumbai seafront before heading to the Taj hotel. Onlookers pressed up against police barricades along the motorcade's short route. With armed police at every road intersection, southern Mumbai was turned into a fortress with police outnumbering onlookers. Snipers kept vigil on the top of buildings along the route. Across town, police took the precaution of removing coconuts around Mani Bhavan, where Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi stayed while in Mumbai and which now serves as a museum that Obama visited on Saturday. The 2008 Mumbai attack was launched by militants who arrived by boat from Pakistan, coming ashore near the Taj. It increased tension between the nuclear foes, who have been to war three times since independence from Britain in 1947.

TOUGH SELL TV stations were abuzz with most Indian commentators surprised about the softness of Obama's Taj speech. "This was a guarded statement," strategic analyst Mahroof Raza told the Times Now news channel.

"No mention of Pakistan conveys that Pakistan is key to their (Washington's) Afghan policy ... and, therefore, Pakistan will not be brought to book." The opposition also criticised the speech. "Knowing fully well that Pakistan and Pakistani machinery has been used for perpetrating terror in India, by not acknowledging it he has disappointed the country as a whole," said Rajiv Pratap Rudy, spokesman for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

Obama heads to New Delhi on Sunday. His Saturday-to-Tuesday trip to India started just four days after his Democratic party sustained big election losses tied to the weak economy, raising doubts over how much the trip can yield given pressures at home.

Washington still faces a host of hurdles, including Indian worries that signing defence pacts -- which are necessary for the U.S. arms sales to go through -- may land New Delhi in a wider entanglement with the U.S. military.

 

[PAKFA]

USA has its own obligation in war torn Afghanistan. Its arm supply coming from Pakistan. If Obama will mention anything like this will be more diplomatic victory for us.

 

[ajay26]

Obama is not going to behave like Cameron whilst in India he will adopt a more cautious strategy.

 

[XYON]

I think that we Pakistanis KNOW the Indians better than Obama or the Americans!! So his current visit may be same as that of the 'radio salesman' visit of the Japanese PM in 1947 to the US, everyone including China knows that the US is trying to appease the Hindus against the Chinese.

INDIA can never be CHINA or even get close to its potential of development. Everything in-between, including Obama in Mumbai, remains purely academic in the annals of history

 

[Bhim]

I think that we Pakistanis KNOW the Indians better than Obama or the Americans!! So his current visit may be same as that of the 'radio salesman' visit of the Japanese PM in 1947 to the US, everyone including China knows that the US is trying to appease the Hindus against the Chinese.

INDIA can never be CHINA or even get close to its potential of development. Everything in-between, including Obama in Mumbai, remains purely academic in the annals of history

Words of Wisdom from a scholar...


Yadi woh Pakistan bhi jaata to kya fir bhi academic hi hooti trip??

Itna nahi jalte...

 

[kingofkings]

I think that we Pakistanis KNOW the Indians better than Obama or the Americans!! So his current visit may be same as that of the 'radio salesman' visit of the Japanese PM in 1947 to the US, everyone including China knows that the US is trying to appease the Hindus against the Chinese.

INDIA can never be CHINA or even get close to its potential of development. Everything in-between, including Obama in Mumbai, remains purely academic in the annals of history

Mind you lang .... don't address us as "Hindus" we are "INDIANS"

You say that " INDIA can never get close to CHINA" same is the case with you " Pakistan can never get close to INDIA".

 

[muse]

If Obama will mention anything like this will be more diplomatic victory for us.

How sad is that. That such idiot notions survive in a polity that seeks international respect is a insult to those in India more concerned with creating lives of dignity for those hundreds of millions of Indians trapped in poverty and ignorance.

Which is a true victory, creating lives of dignity or a transitory illusion? You want a "more diplomatic victory"? You got it, now crawl back under the rock you emerged from.

 

[indushek]

I think that we Pakistanis KNOW the Indians better than Obama or the Americans!! So his current visit may be same as that of the 'radio salesman' visit of the Japanese PM in 1947 to the US, everyone including China knows that the US is trying to appease the Hindus against the Chinese.

INDIA can never be CHINA or even get close to its potential of development. Everything in-between, including Obama in Mumbai, remains purely academic in the annals of history

Don't u address this nation as Hindus only, we are Indians first Whatever ur insecurities have atleast the respect to call a nation with its name. We are Indians. We are not religious bigots u........ leave it there will be no difference between us and u.

 

[indushek]

How sad is that. That such idiot notions survive in a polity that seeks international respect is a insult to those in India more concerned with creating lives of dignity for those hundreds of millions of Indians trapped in poverty and ignorance.

Which is a true victory, creating lives of dignity or a transitory illusion? You want a "more diplomatic victory"? You got it, now crawl back under the rock you emerged from.

A diplomatic victory is a victory to whoever gets it.

It will be the same for a country troubled with daily bombings, planned killings corrupt to the core politicians robbing the country and bringing it to the brink of bankruptcy and violent citizens resorting to all kinds of terrorist activites to find work as regular work does not come their way and also to mob killings to vent their frustration. IF u know what i mean.

This is also same to a country as mentioned by you.

These things are not considered in diplomacy, one does not think that just because we have these factors let us through international diplomacy out of window and concentrate on a single point agenda. A nation does not work this way.

 

[U-571]

Mind you lang .... don't address us as "Hindus" we are "INDIANS"

You say that " INDIA can never get close to CHINA" same is the case with you " Pakistan can never get close to INDIA".

huhh??, just in the past decade during bjp time we are actually better than you

 

[Toshiba]

huhh??, just in the past decade during bjp time we are actually better than you

u mean ""were""

 

[anathema]

I think that we Pakistanis KNOW the Indians better than Obama or the Americans!! So his current visit may be same as that of the 'radio salesman' visit of the Japanese PM in 1947 to the US, everyone including China knows that the US is trying to appease the Hindus against the Chinese.

INDIA can never be CHINA or even get close to its potential of development. Everything in-between, including Obama in Mumbai, remains purely academic in the annals of history

China hasn't done any magic to reach the stage where they are at the moment. They have done it through their hard work with a considerable help by a one party political system. India will also come of age. It may or may not catch china but it will definitely leave a mark on the world in a GOOD WAY.

A quote from a fellow poster Banglore may help to highlight this.

20 years ago when an American used to see an Indian , he used to equate it with ' A guy playing the role of snake charmer'...

Now when he sees an indian ...he retorts...'You are the computer experts'...

Perception changes..so does reality...but most important...Indians as a population believes in India as a country and its destiny in the world.

 

[TATA]

I think that we Pakistanis KNOW the Indians better than Obama or the Americans!! So his current visit may be same as that of the 'radio salesman' visit of the Japanese PM in 1947 to the US, everyone including China knows that the US is trying to appease the Hindus against the Chinese.

INDIA can never be CHINA or even get close to its potential of development. Everything in-between, including Obama in Mumbai, remains purely academic in the annals of history

What a Hindu have to do with this thread??????

What drag china into this discussion?

post reported for flame and targeting religion.

 

[muse]

A diplomatic victory is a victory to whoever gets it.

Fair enough - now what? So you have the diplomatic "victory"? Can you eat it? Can your hungry masses eat it? Will it help them lead more dignified lives?


Creating lives of dignity is not a single point agenda, I can't think of a more important agenda, but that's just me - look at how thinking Indians consider the whole India - US equation:

Obama in India: Expectations and Opportunities



President Obama will be making his first visit to India next week. There is no question that the President’s trip is important as a symbol of the growing prominence of India’s role in the global economy, and its strategic importance in regional stability. The upcoming meetings, especially when juxtaposed with the recent U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue and the continuing tensions involving US presence in Afghanistan, are an opportunity for the Americans to engage with an established democracy (the world’s largest) and focus on building a mutually beneficial economic partnership, and less so on counterinsurgencies, drone attacks, and nation-building. In addition, the visit will address key issues for both sides, including US H1B visa fees for Indians immigrants, U.S. export controls, and India’s nuclear liability legislation which is currently presenting a roadblock to the historic civil nuclear deal between the two countries. It is also no small coincidence that the President will be starting his trip in Mumbai, and staying at the majestic Taj Mahal hotel, one of the sites of the horrific attacks of November 26, 2008, a gesture, undoubtedly to show solidarity with the Indians in standing up again terrorism.

However, for those of us who see India through a multidimensional lens and have lived and worked well outside the U.S. Embassy compound in Chanakyapuri, it seems that the “groupthink” by Washington and New Delhi has created a narrow parameter for this trip, namely creating stronger ties between business and government elites, and not recognizing the other less “shining” India. As a result, opportunities may be missed that address important, far-reaching issues, such as how the US and India can work together in addressing the poverty in which nearly 40% of India’s 1.35 billion people still live and access to quality primary and secondary education (a challenge shared by both the Americans and Indians). And, building linkages and support for innovative entrepreneurs and small medium enterprises in the US and India who are key drivers of both economies (and who will certainly not be able to afford the thousand dollar per person lunches being organized around the visit). Currently hundreds of millions of India’s people are marginalized – their participation in the marketplace is vital to India’s continued growth, and the growth of the global economy, creating the capacity and infrastructure to meet its own demands as well as those of U.S. and international investors, and most importantly, in ensuring regional stability.

Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, announced a $2b military aid package to Pakistan. President Obama’s visit to India can complement this reaffirmed US commitment to Pakistan by encouraging India to continue pursuing dialogue with its neighbor, while maintaining its commitment and partnership with India on counterterrorism issues. The U.S. will never be a direct interlocutor between India and Pakistan. However, its strategic but separate alliances with both countries can be instrumental in moving the relationship forward, and clearing the lines of communication about their activities in Afghanistan.

President Obama’s visit to India will likely meet expectations of showing mutual respect between the two governments, strengthening economic alliances, and giving India its earned recognition as an emerging global superpower. (A recognition that will be further solidified if and when the US endorses India’s bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.) However, it will be important for both New Delhi and Washington to move beyond the elite business paradigm and think creatively on how the two countries can work together towards building sustainable and equitable growth for both their constituencies, and towards regional and global security.

Shikha Bhatnagar is associate director of the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center.

 

[Spring Onion]

When will India come out of banking on petty statements for solace for a bruised ego.



India wants internal politics on the cost of such statements which BTW does not affect Pakistan in anyway. It would have been just another statement.