Reactions
Indian media was generally positive in its response to the visit and hailed the new closeness between the two countries.[31] Commenting on the visit Senator John McCain stated that he hoped that India and U.S. will increase military cooperation in view of “China’s troubling assertiveness”. He also expressed support for India joining the UN security council.[32] Jeffrey R. Immelt CEO of General Electric talking about the visit said Obama’s was a game changer for both countries and that he saw it as a win-win situation on both sides, if they played their cards right.[33]
Pakistan – U.S. support to India on the issue of a permanent seat in UN security council was immediately criticized by Pakistan. In a statement Pakistan’s foreign ministry said “Pakistan believes that U.S. endorsement of India’s bid for its permanent seat in the Security Council adds to the complexity of the process of reforms of the Council, Pakistan hopes that the U.S. will take a moral view and not base itself on any temporary expediency or exigencies of power politics.”[34]
People’s Republic of China – Chinese government responded positively by saying “China values India’s status in the international affairs and understands India’s aspirations to play a greater role in the United Nations and is ready to keep contact and consultations with India and other member states on the issues of Security Council reform.”[35]
The Term Paper on India And Pakistan Nuclear States War
In May 1998 India's new coalition government led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) conducted five nuclear tests. This was shortly responded by Pakistan with similar action, and the world realized that it received at once two new overt nuclear states. The nuclear tests were met with great popular celebration in the two countries and a big concern worldwide. Why nuclear tests in 1998 took place? ...
Germany – Guido Westerwelle German foreign minister responding to Obama’s support for Indian bid for a permanent seat said “Germany backs efforts to restructure the 15-seat Security Council, currently made up the US, China, France, the United Kingdom and Russia as permanent members with other members serving on a rotating basis.”[36]
Brazil – Brazil’s foreign minister Celso Amorim commenting on US support for a permanent seat in UNSC similarly responded positively saying “I am very happy for India, which is a good partner of Brazil. The fact that he (Obama) is mentioning India by name, that the US are accepting a developing country, pulls the door open for other big emerging countries like Brazil or others in Africa.”[36]
Speculation on cost
An Indian media source reported that the trip would cost US$200 million per day, more than the cost per day of the Afghanistan war, and that 34 U.S. Navy warships would be involved, an assertion that was picked up by Republican Michele Bachmann, and conservative pundits including Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh to criticize Obama. The New York Times then published that the true figure is “Nothing close to that” and President Clinton’s visit to Africa in 1998 cost US$3.6 million per day.[37]
Fox News reported the Indian news’ exaggerated claims, and in their news report stated the government’s statements of much lower figures.[38] According to the Hindustan Times, all 440 rooms of the ITC Maurya hotel have been reserved for the President and his entourage.[39]
ISLAMABAD: The symbolism, trade deals and fine words of Barack Obama’s courtship of India should be Pakistan’s wake-up call to fix its economy and eradicate militancy to ward off isolation, analysts say.
The Essay on How Has the Personification of India and the Indian Woman Been Reflected in the Various Paintings of Mother India?
“I am India. The Indian nation is my body. Kanyakumari is my foot and the Himalayas my head. The Ganges flows from my thighs. My left leg is the Coromandal Coast, my right is the Coast of Malabar. I am this entire land. East and West are my arms. How wondrous is my form! When I walk I sense all India moves with me. When I speak, India speaks with me. I am India. I am Truth, I am God, I am Beauty.” ...
The US president declared India a world power, the India-US alliance “one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century” and unveiled deals worth 10 billion dollars designed to create 50,000 American jobs in an ailing economy.
Going further than any US president before, he backed India’s quest for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, although with no immediate prospect of reform and likely strong Chinese opposition, it was a largely symbolic move.
Just weeks after Pakistan’s latest round of “strategic dialogue” with the US in a bid to overcome mistrust, the warm embrace between Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stood in stark contrast.
“Pakistanis have to be more realistic on understanding India’s growing international role,” political analyst Hasan Askari told AFP.
“India is investing in the United States while our economy is in bad shape. There is no Pakistani investment in the West, very little in the Middle East. We ask for money from the United States, while India does not.”
Indian deals will funnel 10 billion dollars into the US economy, while under a US Congress bill American taxpayers fork out 1.5 billion a year for development in Pakistan with promises of another two billion dollars in military assistance.
While Obama’s visit reflects the shift in power to emerging nations since the financial crisis, Pakistan is a considered client state with a Taliban and al Qaeda presence plotting to kill US soldiers and fanning the war in Afghanistan.
Pakistan, whose status as a nuclear power still alarms the West, has been stifled by decades of military rule, recession and religious extremism.
Its security forces are fighting a Taliban insurgency in the northwest.
Bomb attacks have killed thousands nationwide and its tribal belt is considered an al Qaeda headquarters subject to a covert US drone war.
Writing in The News daily, public policy consultant Mosharraf Zaidi said the only lesson to draw from Obama’s visit was “the deals being made”.
“While we drown in the inanities of this country’s infinite and perpetual search for identity, we are deepening our current bankruptcy, and ensuring a future of mostly begging for handouts.”
The Essay on Is India Still Developing Country
Even after 66 years of independence, India is still labeled as a developing country. I think as a nation, we have miles to go. The question of whether or not India is a developed or developing country is not so simple. To understand the real India, we need to look at many other indicators, such as health and education too. I think the level of development in a country is directly proportionate to ...
With Obama visiting Indonesia, APEC in Japan and the G20 in South Korea, Zaidi said: “The reason he is not visiting Pakistan is obvious. Pakistan does not belong on that list of countries and that is not India’s fault.”
Analysts say Islamabad should soften its foreign policy, dominated by the anti-Indian military, to avoid isolation as the United States looks to end the war against the Afghan Taliban.
“In today’s world, defeat can be described in one way only: international isolation…Pakistan must learn to be more objective about the crisis it is facing internally,” wrote The Express Tribune in an editorial.
“Pakistan can sort out this crisis through self-correction.”
But there was also gratitude; unlike British Prime Minister David Cameron — who sparked a diplomatic crisis when he accused Pakistan of exporting terror while in India — Obama refused to be drawn into fresh criticism of Islamabad.
He urged India and Pakistan to resolve their differences and called on Islamabad to do more against militants, but acknowledged the country was making progress against what he called the “cancer” of extremism.
Askari said in what was a nod to the US realisation that the country is indispensable to forging peace in Afghanistan, Obama did not sideline Pakistan.
“What he said about terrorist havens in the tribal areas is what the Americans have been saying before his visit…he avoided any criticism of Pakistan which the Indians were expecting,” said Askari.
Former lieutenant general-turned-security analyst Talat Masood said Pakistan was obviously concerned by US-India ties, and would remain apprehensive about India unless relations with Pakistan are normalised.
“But there is not much it can do. Pakistan has to adjust itself to the existing reality. It should improve its own domestic situation,” Masood said.
