Prez Obama walks up to the PM...

Yes, that was in the Indian press and media today. That President Obama "walked" up to the Indian Prime Minister excited the Indian press that it was quoted verbatim across much of the media. Apparently one of the members in the delegation saw this happen!

Indian culture puts the onus on the younger person to approach the elder and more experienced one as a mark of respect. Jolly good indeed! Totally another matter that in these gatherings everyone walks around greeting everybody else. Well, in the west its called socializing.

Interpretation for sound and show purposes apart lets simply look at the schedule of President Obama at the G-20 on Wednesday and Thursday. Here below are two links to the 2 day schedule released by the White House Press Secretary.

President Obama's Wednesday G-20 Official schedule

President Obama's Thursday G-20 Official schedule

Let me pick out a few engagements from both these schedules.


On Wednesday:

11:45AM The President meets the Russian President @ Winfield House
02:00PM The President meets the Chinese President @ Winfield House
05:35PM The President meets HM Queen Elizabeth II @ Buckingham Palace

All of the above are very important engagements. The fact that Mr. Obama chooses to meet the Russian and Chinese leaders at his residence in London on the same day that he meets his host the Queen speaks to the importance that the administration attaches to these countries.

On Thursday:

08:00AM The President meets the South Korean Prime Minister @ the summit sidelines
09:50AM The President attends the G 20 plenary session
03:45PM The President meets the King of Saudi Arabia @ the summit sidelines
04:30PM The President meets the Indian Prime Minister @ the Summit sidelines

Now there are two ways of looking at this. Either the glass is half full or half empty.

The half full glass is that the President did choose to meet the Indian leader at the G20. On the whole he perhaps met only a handful of leaders among the 20 or so leaders attending the summit.


The half empty glass is that the US is not going to give as much importance to India as it got from the previous Bush administration. It simply showed when the US leader met only the Russian and Chinese leaders on the first day. For all the achievements that India has made post 1991, we still have a long way to go before our voice is heard at such forums.

The Bank of China Governor publishes an essay on the Bank's website and it catches wildfire all over the world. Our opinion is barely heard even in the Indian press, which is more concerned with silly things like who walked up to whom.