US President Joe Biden is coming to India today on a 3-day visit. Biden left for Germany late night on Air Force 1. After getting fuel refilled in the helicopter here, he left for India. Biden will land at Palam Airport at around 6:55 pm.
Biden will have a bilateral meeting with PM Modi on Friday itself. America’s NSA Jake Sullivan said that during this period there will also be discussion on increasing cooperation in civil nuclear technology between the two countries. During this time an agreement can be reached on small modular nuclear reactors. Apart from this, talks can also move forward on the GE jet engine deal between the two countries.
There will also be talks between the two leaders on the Russia-Ukraine war. During this, reducing the impact of war at the economic and social level will be discussed. According to the White House, Modi-Biden will also talk about increasing the capacity of the World Bank and other multilateral development banks to fight poverty and many other global challenges.
Biden will be the 8th President of America to visit India. The special thing is that in the first 50 years of India’s independence, only 3 American Presidents visited India. At the same time, this will be the sixth visit of an American President in the last 23 years.
Dwight Eisenhower (December 1959)
Dwight Eisenhower was the first US President to visit India. The visit took place at a time when India was recovering from a severe drought and inflation in the country was at its peak. Industrial production and foreign exchange were very low.
On the other hand, in the midst of the ongoing Cold War in the world, India had decided not to support either America or the Soviet Union. It was among the 120 countries that signed the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961.
However, beyond the ongoing political turmoil in the world, India was facing tensions with China on its border. In such a situation, America saw India as an ally against China. During Eisenhower’s visit, the New Orleans Times had reported in its report that the India-China border dispute was discussed between the US President and the then PM Nehru.
The San Francisco Chronicle had said that after meeting Eisenhower, India changed from non-aligned to pro-Western overnight. At the same time, The Minute News had also said in its report that Nehru is now ready to take action against China.
Richard Nixon (August 1969)
Former US President Richard Nixon stayed in India for only 23 hours. Nixon was a Pakistani supporter and he was against India’s non-aligned policy. At that time, America believed that the tension between India and Pakistan was continuously increasing. He considered India a puppet of the Soviet Union.
According to Al Jazeera, the focus of Richard’s visit was to improve relations with Indira Gandhi. Actually, he had made racist comments about India and Indira Gandhi on several occasions. When Nixon came to India in the 1960s before becoming President, he was welcomed by Morarji Desai, a senior minister in the Nehru government.
Desai kept only vegetarian dishes for Nixon, while Nixon was very fond of non-veg and alcohol. Angered by Desai’s hospitality, Nixon left India. The next stop on his tour was Pakistan. Here many types of meat and other non-veg dishes were kept to welcome him. Due to this Nixon became more influenced by Pakistan.
After this, when there was a war in 1971 on the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, Richard Nixon had become the President in America. He supported Pakistan in this war.
Jimmy Carter (January 1978)
Former US President Jimmy Carter visited India in 1978 on a 3-day visit. He also visited Daulatpur Nasirabad, a village in Gurugram in Haryana. After this the name of that village was changed to Carterpuri. The purpose of his visit was to improve relations between the two countries, which deteriorated after the 1971 Pakistan war and India’s nuclear test in Pokhran in 1974.
In the year 1974, India conducted the first nuclear test in Pokhran, Rajasthan without anyone getting a clue. Due to which America got angry. Due to this, many types of restrictions were also imposed on India. When Jimmy Carter came to India in 1978, he was sure that he would get India to sign NPT i.e. Non-Proliferation Treaty and stop the way of getting our nuclear weapons forever. However, this did not happen.
The then Prime Minister Morarji Desai cleverly put three conditions in front of him. He said that India will sign the NPT if all the nuclear powers of the world do the same. In the second condition, he said that no one would make nuclear weapons. In the third condition, he said that if all the countries that have nuclear weapons destroy them, then India too will never conduct any nuclear test.
