A flurry of visits in run-up to Obama's India trip

By Arun Kumar Washington, Feb 1 (IANS) A flurry of visits, reflecting the growing level of Indo-US bilateral engagement since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's November visit, is on the cards in the run-up to President Barack Obama's key visit to India.

No dates have been finalised for the Obama visit later this year, but a time frame could well be firmed up when Manmohan Singh is back in Washington in April to attend the Global Nuclear Security Summit to be hosted by the White House April 12 and 13.        
There is some speculation that Obama may well visit India in June during the summer school break as he plans to bring along his daughters Malia and Sasha too. But the Delhi heat during June may be a deterrent factor.        
The prime minister's April visit will be his third trip to the US in seven months. He was in Pittsburgh in September for a summit of the Group of Twenty (G20) countries hosted by Obama. He came again in November for Obama administration's first State visit, considered a signal honour for India.        
The Washington summit is the result of a decision by the Group of Eight (G8) countries at their summit in L'Aquila, Italy, in July 2009, to endorse Obama's ambitious initiative in Prague three months earlier to rid the world of nuclear weapons.        
The key objective is to deal with nuclear terrorism and launch an international effort to secure vulnerable nuclear materials within four years.        
Another aim is to break up black markets like the one run by notorious Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan and detect and intercept materials in transit and use financial tools to disrupt illicit trade in nuclear materials.        
Before Manmohan Singh comes calling, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma will visit Washington in March to take forward the agenda of deepening the economic partnership between the two countries.        
The India-US CEOs' Forum co-chaired by Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Sons Limited and David Cote, CEO, Honeywell Inc too would be meeting then.        
The prime minister's visit will be followed by Pranab Mukherjee's first visit as finance minister. His trip for the April 24-25 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group will also provide an opportunity for bilateral discussions.        
The India-US strategic dialogue will begin in May. The high-level forum designed to further strengthen a relationship that has dramatically improved in recent years was established during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's three-day trip to India last July.        
The annual sessions to be co-chaired by Clinton and External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna are intended to inspire broad partnerships beyond the government level.        
Also on the cards is a visit to India by Obama's National Security Advisor, Gen James Jones, to meet his new counterpart Shivshankar Menon, a former foreign secretary who played a key role in taking forward the India-US civil nuclear deal.        
Defence Minister A.K. Antony may not be returning US Defence Secretary Robert Gates visit to India soon, and official level exchanges are expected to follow up on the Gates' trip.        
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)