NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 30 (RIA Novosti) – A US-India summit in Washington is helping repair relations after a series of diplomatic and trade rows between the two countries, analyst Alyssa Ayres, a former State Department official, told RIA Novosti.
"These meetings are a positive sign that we're getting back on track from what had been a really difficult period in the relationship, with a very difficult trade and investment environment and a vast and growing list of grievances in the US about the Indian market," said Ayres, an analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama met in Washington on Tuesday for talks on security, climate change and boosting trade between the two nations from $100 billion to an ambitious goal of $500 billion.
India-US relations have suffered setbacks, including a row over the junior Indian diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested and strip-searched in New York. It caused uproar in India and led to the resignation of Washington's envoy to New Delhi, who has yet to be replaced.
The US also denied Modi's US visa request in 2005, before he was elected prime minister in May.
"The Khobragade incident disrupted everything in officialdom," said Ayres. "So what's been really positive is that, in the months since Modi's election, it's become clear that the visa is an issue of the past. Disruptions in the relationship over Khobragade are now being handled solely in diplomatic channels, and definitely not in the press anymore."
