Obama visit produced modest breakthroughs, India and US must keep moving forward

By Tim Roemer

The personal relationship between world leaders is critical to advancing shared causes. We see this in the stories about Winston Churchill living at the White House during World War II, sometimes for days at a time.

We read in the press recently that Indian Prime Minister Modi broke with tradition and met President Obama at the airport in New Delhi with a bear hug. Modi apparently later referred to Obama simply as “Barack” and said “we joke and share a lot together”.

Similarly, Obama is the first US president to visit India twice while in office, the first to attend India's Republic Day parade and devoted personal time to take Modi on a guided tour of the Martin Luther King Jr memorial on his recent visit to Washington.

Such unique camaraderie is crucial to enhancing trust, strengthening and deepening strategic partnerships and expanding democracy-building opportunities in Asia. The US-India relationship is fundamentally based on common values and mutually shared interests.

I spoke with President Obama at the White House in 2009 about his priorities and foreign policy objectives. He articulated the vital role India should play as a strategic partner with the US in several areas, including counterterrorism, climate issues and new trade opportunities. He also recognised India`s critical role in influencing other countries and strongly encouraged me in my position as US ambassador to concentrate on three policy goals.

First, he said, reach out with your “diplomatic tools” to Indians across the spectrum of religion, economic background, region and status and “connect our values to theirs”. He stressed that it would not be good enough to meet only the successful and well-known, but that i must visit and get to know the disadvantaged and poor. I utilised social media, started a “Shake Hands with the Ambassador” campaign, and travelled to villages never before visited by our ambassadors.

Second, in light of the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, Obama urged me to find new avenues of counterterrorism cooperation and intelligence sharing in fighting terrorism as partners. He knew this would be a long-term generational battle. In 2010, we signed a landmark counterterrorism and intelligence-sharing agreement with India.

Lastly, the president recognised India`s invaluable role in the region in promoting democracy and facilitating peace. Afghanistan faced several daunting security challenges; Pakistan was becoming more fragile; Myanmar would be emerging from a difficult past; Bangladesh faced severe water and development problems; Sri Lanka was coming out of a devastating civil war; Nepal was struggling with a host of issues; and China was building ports all around the region.

We are currently working in numerous new bilateral and multilateral settings with India. Modi has delivered speeches in Japan, Australia and Nepal promoting good governance, democracy and good neighbour policies. US and Indian security interests appear to be moving closer together across Asia and will be a powerful stabilising force in the decades ahead.

During President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama's visit to India last month, modest breakthroughs have occurred in climate change, defence cooperation and possibly even clean energy. Following up with details and actually implementing the agreements will be crucial in the months ahead, but India has expressed its intention to increase its share of renewable energy in electricity generation, which is consistent with its plans to have more solar capacity.