Former Presidents of USA who visited India
India is looking forward for the visit of the President of United Mr. Donald Trump, it is noteworthy that previously only six US presidents have visited India since our independence. Former Presidents of USA who visited India
The top level exchanges between worlds largest and the oldest democracies began with India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visiting the US in 1949. But it took another ten years for Washington to return the call with President Dwight D Eisenhower going to India in December 1959.
John F. Kennedy, who succeeded Eisenhower, could not visit India, but sent Vice-President Lyndon Johnson to India in the very first year in office in 1961. First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy toured India the next year. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963. Former Presidents of USA who visited India
Richard Nixon came as the President in July 1969, six months after assuming office, to ease tensions with then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The two leaders never really hit it off with Nixon taking a hostile stand against India during the 1971 Bangladesh war. Former Presidents of USA who visited India
It would be another nine years before Jimmy Carter became the third US president to visit India in January 1978 after the general elections in India in 1977 when Indira Gandhi lost power after popular revolt against her emergency regime (1975-77).
The US soon became India’s largest trading partner, but Carter who came to deliver a “cold and blunt message” to India over its nuclear ambitions failed to get Morarji Desai’s Janata Party government to sign the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. Former Presidents of USA who visited India
It was another 22 years before Bill Clinton came in March 2000 to take out the chill from India-US relations since India’s second set of nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1998. In many ways, this was a turning point in Indo-US ties that were earlier termed as “Estranged Democracies”. Clinton, who came with his daughter, visited Jaipur, Hyderabad and Mumbai besides Delhi during a five-day trip was the longest stay by any US president.
George W Bush, who was the fifth US president to visit India, in March 2006 with first lady Laura and established a rapport with then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. His 60-hour visit, by far the shortest after Nixon’s 23 hours, marked the beginning of the end of India’s “nuclear apartheid” with the two countries signing the historic India-US nuclear deal. Former Presidents of USA who visited India
Barack Obama, who had in November 2009 held the first state dinner of his presidency in honor of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, visited India in November 2010. He became the second US president after Nixon in 1969 to visit India in his first term in office and the second after Eisenhower to address a joint session of the Indian Parliament. Now Obama is set to notch two more firsts. He will be the first US president to be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebration as also the first to visit India twice while in office.
Calling the India-US relationship “a defining partnership of the 21st century,” he also backed India’s quest for permanent membership of UN Security Council. Former Presidents of USA who visited India
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, today’s evening visited the Taj Mahal where they posed at the iconic bench inside the 17th-century mausoleum. Trump arrived from Ahmedabad after jointly attending with Prime Minister Narendra Modi the mega ‘Namaste Trump‘ event at the Motera cricket stadium. A giant billboard featuring Trump, Melania and Modi greeted the couple with a message ‘Grand welcome of India’s best friend to the City of Love Agra‘.
