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Obama to be chief guest at India's 2015 Republic Day

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  • #16
    For one thing, put a call to Putin saying we just saw that. For another, direct flights to buzz the border as we have done during Yugoslavia.
    oh, i totally agree that can be done, and -should- be done if putin wants to take another slap at ukraine.

    but i don't see why he needs to be in washington for any of that. any Presidential delegation comes with a massive comms set and it's not as if the President would be personally directing a counter-offensive.

    The spooks are saying that this is the best time for Russia to move. Summer, spring, and autumn, you have more leadway. At the very least, the Western Ukrainians can make a run for it in good order.
    ah, makes sense. OTOH if the ukrainians can't stop the russian-backed rebels after weeks/months of fortification, good luck trying to do it short of getting into a street fight...
    There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

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    • #17
      Originally posted by astralis View Post
      but i don't see why he needs to be in washington for any of that. any Presidential delegation comes with a massive comms set and it's not as if the President would be personally directing a counter-offensive.
      The message! My finger is on the button. Your call.

      Originally posted by astralis View Post
      ah, makes sense. OTOH if the ukrainians can't stop the russian-backed rebels after weeks/months of fortification, good luck trying to do it short of getting into a street fight...
      We don't care about the Ukrainians stopping the Russians. We want them to bloody the Russians as much as possible and we will do everything we can to make this happend including telling the Ukrainians the Russians axis of advance!
      Chimo

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      • #18
        But reading this over, I'm thinking like a military man.

        And Obama is no military man.
        Chimo

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        • #19
          Originally posted by Officer of Engineers View Post
          But reading this over, I'm thinking like a military man.

          And Obama is no military man.
          Most US Presidents aren't - but then again it's not a prerequisite for the job either.
          Last edited by Monash; 24 Nov 14,, 08:54.
          If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

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          • #20
            Originally posted by Blademaster View Post
            You don't understand the significance of being asked to be the Chief Guest of Honor during the India Republic Parade.
            The point is, do our politicians understand the significance of the welcome India is getting?
            - Economic alternative to China.
            - The US is also looking for India to commit its military in international conflicts on the side of the US.

            We will not get one without the other.

            Cheers!...on the rocks!!

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            • #21
              Originally posted by lemontree View Post
              .
              Congrats on becoming a global mod Captain :) was away for a while and guess I missed a lot of things happening here..

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              • #22
                Good to know Obama coming to India at R-Day.

                So why Ukraine and Russia dragged in here?

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                • #23
                  Originally posted by DarthSiddius View Post
                  That is Ackward

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                  • #24
                    Originally posted by DarthSiddius View Post
                    Kind of ironic, an American president watching a Soviet inspired demonstration of national unity and military might. He will be the first American president to attend the Republic day parade and the first President to visit India twice while in office.
                    French top the list with 4 invites since independence.

                    Some defence deals will be on the anvil.

                    Originally posted by DarthSiddius View Post
                    Curious indeed. Symbolic mostly though, I would imagine. It's the language used in the invitation that's indicative of the intent.
                    has the whitehouse made the invitation public ?

                    Originally posted by lemontree View Post
                    The point is, do our politicians understand the significance of the welcome India is getting?
                    - Economic alternative to China.
                    - The US is also looking for India to commit its military in international conflicts on the side of the US.

                    We will not get one without the other.
                    If Russia wants to hug China now is a good time to provide openings for the Americans.
                    Last edited by Double Edge; 24 Nov 14,, 20:11.

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                    • #25
                      Originally posted by Double Edge View Post
                      has the whitehouse made the invitation public ?
                      The white house twitter handle confirmed it.
                      Attached Files

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                      • #26
                        Military parades seem like a relic of the cold war. But I'm not complaining since I enjoy watching it. However, maybe we should rethink having foreign leaders as chief guests. It doesn't really serve any purpose unless the trip is doubled up to include discussions on actually important matters.

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                        • #27
                          Looks like we've both come to some sort of recent understanding over WTO.

                          U.S. seeks to step up India trade talks after WTO breakthrough | Reuters | Nov 24 2014

                          NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The United States wants to step up its trade dialogue with India, Trade Representative Michael Froman said on Monday, after the resolution of a global trade dispute paved the way for President Barack Obama to visit India.

                          Direct contacts between Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi this month helped to end a deadlock that had prevented the World Trade Organization from implementing a $1 trillion package of reforms to global customs rules.

                          "The breakthrough at the WTO could not have been possible without the direct and personal engagement of Prime Minister Modi and President Obama," Froman told businessmen in New Delhi in a speech.

                          He expressed hope that the General Council of the 160-member WTO would approve a U.S.-Indian agreement on food stockpiling and the broader Trade Facilitation Agreement, simultaneously, in the next few days.

                          An internal WTO document seen by Reuters shows a WTO meeting will approve both on Wednesday, while pushing back the deadline for agreeing next steps in global trade reforms to July 2015, instead of the previous date of December 2014.

                          In India for the first round of high-level trade talks since the breakthrough, Froman urged progress on key areas of U.S. concern, such as intellectual property rights on pharmaceuticals and Hollywood movies.

                          "This pace of engagement is impressive, but shouldn't be surprising for what President Obama declared the 'defining partnership of the 21st century'," Froman said.

                          "Our task is to build on our mutual interests, with mutual respect, and deliver on the promise of that partnership."

                          Obama, who hosted Modi in Washington in September, will in January become the first U.S. president to visit India twice, completing a remarkable warming in the relationship between the leaders of the world's two largest democracies.

                          Froman was due to meet Indian Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitaraman on Tuesday for the first round of a bilateral U.S.-India trade policy forum in four years.

                          The talks will include discussions on a high-level working group on intellectual property rights set up by Obama and Modi.

                          More on the basis of the WTO dispute here. This break through occurred a week back. Few days later the twitters come out :)
                          Last edited by Double Edge; 24 Nov 14,, 23:50.

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                          • #28
                            CSIS Press Briefing: President Obama's Upcoming Trip to India

                            some people point to the president’s visit to India as exciting because it’s the first time a president has visited India twice while in office. But actually, I think the bigger narrative is the fact that we’re having this much engagement so soon in the Modi administration. Surprising to see how much India’s been willing to engage us, is probably the bigger story than the opposite.
                            I say that we actually pivoted to India before we announced the Asia pivot, right? The next steps on strategic partnership, the nuclear agreement, right? These are things that you would consider to be part of a dramatic pivot. And it was a pivot to India before it was a pivot to Asia. And because of the inability to conclude the nuclear agreement, we sort of pivoted away from India at the time that we announced the pivot to Asia. But now I think that India has raised its hand and said we’re ready to talk about strategic interests again and shared interests. I feel that India’s back in line, I think, with the – with the broader Asia pivot, and in fact may become one of the – one of the cornerstones now
                            everybody keeps asking me, what’s the agenda? The agenda is going to flow from the joint statement from September. The question is, what kind of progress are you going to be able to show on that agenda?

                            I’ll point to three things in particular that the United States and India agreed to in the joint statement. Cooperation on denuclearizing North Korea – never before in a head-of-state joint statement that I’ve seen did they talk about something like that. I mean, how many Indian citizens wake up in the morning and are concerned about a North Korean nuclear device falling on their heads? I’d say the number is zero.

                            They talked about shared interest in the rise of instability in West Asia – ISIS, Iraq, Syria. They talked about cooperation in ensuring a stable and prosperous South China Sea region.

                            But the fact that they’re willing to engage on issues like this show that the Modi government – and we don’t yet know what form this is going to take, but the fact that they’re talking about these issues and willing to engage us on them – that’s when we start to think about India as a regional global provider – or as a global provider of security.
                            This provider of security phrase came out of the pentagon a couple of years ago. many neighbours would like India to step up to that role. India as yet is not ready but has the potential. Under the BIA, India was not just a provider of security but the hegemon in the region. But that was then and today is different. Within this context Lee Kuan Yew described India as follows..

                            A big tree that gives little shade.

                            Work to be done before any shade can be provided to others. Indian military diplomacy is still in the nascent stages.

                            Are we going to get a little more definition on what our collaboration on those things might look like? That would be terrific – especially West Asia. It’s on everybody’s minds right now. Would the U.S. – or, would India consider sending troops? It’s difficult to imagine that. I’m sure, it gets raised. But returning militants, questioning them, sharing intelligence, these are all things that are – that are pretty appropriate and feasible.
                            Other points..

                            I’ll be quite frank: Our support for India with the nuclear deal and other things we’d hoped would unlock some of these major defense deals, including MMRCA. And the fact that they didn’t go with an American platform, you know, some people took as a slap in the face. But what did the Department of Defense do? Did they go back to the Pentagon and say: I’m not going to talk to India again for a thousand years?

                            No. The next year they launched the Defense Trade and Technology Initiative, which had two main thrusts. One was to figure out how our sales and India’s procurement procedures could be better aligned. And then the second was to offer some defense equipment for potential co-production, co-development to upgrade. So great time, and Deputy Secretary Ash Carter led that initiative. And India’s very excited to see his name put forward as the potential next defense secretary. So with the Defense Trade and Technology Initiative, we’ve offered India more than a dozen systems, potentially for co-production and co-development.

                            Now, for India, that meant that, well, what the United States is offering us under DTTI probably isn’t better than something that I could already buy on the open market from other countries right now. So the question is, can they – can they – can they break this logjam leading up to the president’s visit and actually get a few of these projects unstuck and officially announced for – to move forward with co-development and co-production? That would be a big deal.
                            Nuclear liability – as Ambassador Frank Wisner used to call keeping India out of the nuclear club, this was the cinder in the eye. A nuclear liability remains the cinder in the eye of the relationship right now.

                            The announcement in September of establishing a formal contacts group, really a tiger team, to work on this issue only – there’s a variety of proposals that have been, floated out there. I think the one that’s talked about most actively now is whether India will formally offer an insurance product to foreign suppliers. Earlier, there was some discussion too that India’s nuclear power developer, NPCIL, could actually absolve suppliers of downstream liability. But I think most companies that looked at that weren’t quite sure that would hold up in a court of law later on.

                            But if the contacts team is able to figure out a workaround solution, that’s a step forward. If they’re not able to find a workaround solution and they can say there is no workaround except going back to the liability law and making an amendment, then at least we’ll know that that’s the option, and there it’s back on the Modi government’s table.
                            Are we going to restart our talks on the bilateral investment treaty? I’m a huge supporter of that. I think an investment treaty, especially as the United States looks at such a robust trade agenda with the rest of the world – TTP, TTIP, Trade and Services Agreement – India is not a party to any of these. So we’re about to establish new lines of trade that are going to completely go around India. India’s going to be like the rock sticking out of the water. So I hope at least an investment treaty will tie our economies together in a more formal sense.
                            India is not ready to join TTP as it means opening up the country to litigation from abroad. So an intermediate agreement outside TTP will have to be fashioned.

                            For more either watch the video or read the transcript.
                            Last edited by Double Edge; 18 Jan 15,, 15:42.

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                            • #29
                              Both obama and modi love PR campaigns.

                              The american govt loves to tell its people that they have an ally in india in this part of the world
                              The indian govt loves to throw a huge show when the US president arrives

                              This deceptive relationship is about similar to the one shared between the americans and the pakistanis.
                              Last edited by anil; 19 Jan 15,, 09:26.

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                              • #30
                                Thanks, it was an interesting read.

                                Originally posted by Double Edge View Post
                                This provider of security phrase came out of the pentagon a couple of years ago.
                                A minor quibble: the Thousand Ship Navy idea was floated more than a decade back; per TSN Indian Navy would be a major provider of security in the western end of the Indo-Pacific region, allocating about 150 surface vessels for maritime security and humanitarian relief. I would think a dedicated Marine / Naval Infantry Regiment providing a brigade for each of your three Naval Commands would be a useful contribution too.

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