Obama In India Looking To Boost US Economy
MUMBAI, India – President Barack Obama arrived in India on Saturday, beginning a 10-day, four-country tour of Asia that will take him through some of the region's most vibrant democracies in search of U.S. economic and security benefits.
Air Force One touched down in the booming financial center of Mumbai around midday after traveling more than 15 hours from Washington. The Indian afternoon was humid and bright. A red carpet was rolled toward the steps of Air Force Once and Obama and his wife, Michelle, emerged with smiles. They were greeted by about a dozen people, including Tim Roemer, the U.S. ambassador to India. Mrs. Obama also received a bouquet of bright red roses.
After a brief stop at his hotel, Obama was to pay his respects at a memorial to victims of the 2008 terror attacks here and visit a home where Mohandas Gandhi once lived before turning to the focus of his first day in India: U.S. jobs.
Obama was set to speak to American and Indian business leaders and was expected to announce trade and export deals worth billions to the U.S. In the wake of the Democrats' devastating midterm losses, attributed in part to the poor state of the U.S. economy, the White House is intent on highlighting concrete benefits to U.S. consumers from Obama's foray overseas.
"It is hard to overstate the importance of Asia to our economic future," the president wrote Saturday in an op-ed in The New York Times.
The president left Washington shortly after the government reported that the economy added 151,000 jobs in October. It wasn't enough to lower a stubborn 9.6 percent jobless rate and the president said it wasn't good enough.
On the longest foreign trip of his presidency, Obama's business-first message is aimed particularly at India, where he is spending three full days. That's also the longest amount of time he has spent in any one country. The trip is also taking him to Indonesia, where he lived for four years as a youth, to South Korea for a meeting of the Group of 20 developed and developing nations and then to Japan for an American Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
The White House is going to great lengths to bring attention to the economic potential and shared democratic values that define its relationship with India and its 1.2 billion residents.
Briefing reporters aboard Air Force One, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon said Obama intends the trip to be "a full embrace of India's rise." Said Donilon: "There's no more powerful way to do that than a presidential trip."
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101106/ap_on_re_us/obama_a...
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For an alternate take of the
For an alternate take of the visit, this article is offered by the BBC. There appears to have been more going on then Obama addressing the concerns of a home audience in the midst of a severe recession, as suggested by the AP article.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11708019
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8 November 2010 Last updated at 05:44 ET
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Obama in Asia: US-India ties 'to define century'
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Washington and Delhi's relationship will be one of the century's defining partnerships, President Barack Obama and Indian PM Manmohan Singh have said.
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On a visit to Delhi, Mr Obama said India was a world power, and both countries would work together to promote stability and prosperity.
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In a speech to parliament later, he said he would address Delhi's bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat...
Defining partnership? .
Defining partnership?
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The following BBC excerpt suggests aspects of the visit transcended mercantile exchange.
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BBC NEWS - SOUTH ASIA
8 November 2010 Last updated at 05:44 ET
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Obama in Asia: US-India ties 'to define century'
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Washington and Delhi's relationship will be one of the century's defining partnerships, President Barack Obama and Indian PM Manmohan Singh have said.
.
On a visit to Delhi, Mr Obama said India was a world power, and both countries would work together to promote stability and prosperity.
.
In a speech to parliament later, he said he would address Delhi's bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat….
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Summing up their ties, Mr Obama said: "As the world's two largest democracies, as large and growing free market economies, as diverse, multi-ethnic societies with strong traditions of pluralism and tolerance, we have not only an opportunity, but also a responsibility to lead.
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"And that's why I believe that the relationship between the United States and India will, in fact, be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st Century."
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Mr Singh said the two countries' relationship would be "defining and indispensable" for the coming decades….