[tomder55]

Narendra Modi is the 15th and current Prime Minister of India. He is a rock star in popularity in his country and in the diaspora. This last week he was in the US where he spoke to the UN ;he sold out a packed Madison Square Garden ;and many Indian nationals watched his address on a big screen in Time Square ;or in their homes on cable.
Then he went to Washington where his reception by the emperor was curiously tepid bordering on rude . (ie they held dinners for him on days that he was fasting ) .The only world leader who has been treated worse during state visits has been Bibi .
We have enormous shared interests with India that need to be nurtured .We should by all accounts be natural allies. They are eager to form new alliances . Modi recently went to Japan for that very purpose. He also met with the Chinese and that did not go particularly well (something to do with a battalion sized contingent of Chinese troops camping out on Indian territory without permission).
But after 2 days of meetings there were no new initiatives agreed upon .
Of course Modi was elected with a mandate to do Thatcher like reforms on the failed socialist government he inherited . This puts him at odds with the emperor who sees his mandate as bring the US closer to the European socialist model .That could be a source of disagreement . However when one looks at the total global picture ;the US and India have more common interests.....of which containing China and combatting Jihadistan are two major ones . There are also business opportunities to pursue with the world's largest democracy. But it is the shared strategic interests that I think should be pursued . We are trying to assemble a coalition against the Islamic State ,and India just happens to have the 4th largest armed forces in the world . The emperor's failure to nurture the relationship with India that GW Bush initiated is just one more failure of his regime on the world stage .

[paraclete]

Don't worry Tom we have your back, we are forming friendlier relationships with India just like we did with China

[tomder55]

you think it is safe to take a stand in the middle. The Chinese and India will be competing for the same space ,and you will have to choose. (so will the USA for that matter ... I see the emperor's reps were in Beijing to schmooze at the same time the emperor dissed Modi )

[paraclete]

It's not a stand in the middle, learn geography, we are off to the east and a little south and unlike yourselves we trade with various nations because we don't have the resources to thumb our nose at good business. You keep sitting on that pedistal but watch you don't fall off. You spend your lives making enemies and where does it get you. Modi hasn't shown himself to be anything but sensible but like China he also has a country to drag out of poverty