NEW DELHI: US President Barack Obama landed in New Delhi Sunday for the start of a three-day visit to India, receiving a hug from Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he disembarked from Air Force One.
According to protocol, the prime minister does not greet foreign leaders on their arrival, meeting them instead at a formal ceremony at the presidential palace.
Obama, who landed in the overcast capital at around 9:40am (0410 GMT), was accorded a red carpet welcome at the start of a visit which is seen as symbolising a new warmth in sometimes strained bilateral ties.
As Obama's motorcade headed off for the welcome ceremony at the residence of President Pranab Mukherjee, the roads were lined with armed police and soldiers, part of a highly choreographed plan for the visit.
Up to 40,000 security personnel will deployed during the visit and 15,000 new closed-circuit surveillance cameras have been installed in the capital, according to media reports.
The two sides have worked to reach agreements on climate change, taxation and defence cooperation in time for the visit. Talks on a hoped-for deal on civil nuclear trade went down to the wire with no clear solution at the weekend.
The United States views India as a vast market and potential counterweight to China's assertiveness in Asia, but frequently grows frustrated with the slow pace of economic reforms and unwillingness to side with Washington in international affairs.
India would like to see a new US approach to Pakistan.
Modi and Obama are due to hold detailed talks later on Sunday on a range of issues including climate change, defence cooperation and a long-delayed civil nuclear power agreement.
Obama, who is the first US president to travel to India twice while in office, will also be the chief guest at Monday's Republic Day parade in the capital.
The visit, which follows a summit in Washington in September, comes less than a year since the Obama administration effectively ended its blacklisting of Modi.
The Hindu nationalist had been shunned by the United States and European Union following deadly communal riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002 while Modi was the chief minister.
In an interview ahead of his arrival, Obama hailed the “remarkable” rise of the 64-year-old Modi, the son of a tea-seller who was elected the leader last year of the world's largest democracy.
Elected last May, Modi has injected a new vitality into the economy and foreign relations and, to Washington's delight, begun pushing back against China's growing presence in South Asia.
Annual bilateral trade of $100 billion is seen as vastly below potential and Washington wants it to grow fivefold.
Obama had been due to visit the Taj Mahal in the city of Agra on Tuesday, but he has scrapped that leg of his trip in order to attend the funeral of King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia.
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