Will Obama do a Carter on Pak? India wonders
Will Barack Obama do a Jimmy Carter? The question is uppermost in the minds of many in India and Japan, but for entirely different reasons.
As the 44th President of the US gets ready for an Asian tour in November which will take him to India, South Korea and Japan, Indians are asking whether Mr Obama will, like Mr Carter before him, skip Pakistan altogether, or will he go the way of Mr Bill Clinton, who spent five days here and five hours in Islamabad?
The Japanese, on the other hand, would want to know whether Mr Obama will indeed visit Hiroshima when he travels to Yokohama for the annual Apec summit. The unprecedented presence of the US ambassador to Japan at the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima has raised hopes that Mr Obama might become the first sitting US President to visit the city after Mr Carter visited Hiroshima’s peace museum in 1984, after his term had ended.
Neither New Delhi nor Washington has officially announced the dates for Mr Obama’s visit, but it is expected to take place in the second week of November. All the Republican Presidents to have visited India — George W. Bush in 2006, Richard Nixon in 1969 and Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1959 — travelled to Pakistan, too. In contrast, Democrat Presidents have been discerning. While Mr Clinton spent five days in India and five hours in Islamabad in 2000, Mr Carter skipped Pakistan altogether in 1978.
The details of American presidential visits are kept secret because of security considerations, more so when the destinations are places such as Pakistan or Afghanistan. Either the announcement is made closer to the date of travel or after the visit is concluded. So Mr Obama might still transit Pakistan, but his calendar is tight.
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