As the US President Barack Obama’s visit to India nears, many expect a new chapter in relations between both the nations but not the Washington based conservative think-tank, the Heritage Foundation.

“I don’t think President Obama is interested in foreign policy. The record is very clear. He is more interested in domestic policies which I think is very flawed,” Derek Scissors, research fellow, Asian Studies Centre at the Heritage Foundation told Governance Now.

“There is no buzz in Washington about Obama’s trip to India. There is no particular goal. The trip is not focused from the American side,” Scissors contended.

“He is just coming to India to just give few speeches, which he will do a very good job and may bring both countries closer,” he proffered.

Comparing it with former president George W. Bush's 2006 visit Scissors said, “President Bush had a specific goal in mind which he was able to accomplish that goal in India like signing Indo-US nuclear deal agreement. President Obama is disinterested, unfocused and unproductive with regard to foreign policy.”

With the Obama administration's focus centred on driving its domestic agenda like healthcare reform and financial regulation, the lack of clarity over its foreign policy objectives has been subject to criticism.

“India is not the personal priority with him. We are just concerned that this will just become another photo-op at a time when India is of growing importance to the United States,” Scissors colleague, Nick Zahn, communications associate at the Heritage Foundation told Governance Now.

However, India has already flagged the outsourcing ban and visa fee hike as issues for discussion in the several meetings held since September between ministries and officials from both sides to fix the agenda for the Manmohan Singh – Barack Obama meet in the first week of November.

The PM has also said that he will table India's concerns at the meeting.

But the Obama administration is not promising a lot.

“It is not clear that Obama intends to do so,” Zahn commented.

The US recently hiked H-1B and L1 visa fees for foreign companies, a controversial step that could cost India’s IT industry $200 million a year.
On the issue of US support for India's bid for permanent mebership of the UN security council, Zahn said that the country should not expect any assurances from the visiting president.

Obama will arrive in Mumbai on November 5, on his longest-ever trip to any foreign nation.

On Monday, an assistant for economic policy in the Obama adminsitration, Lawrence Summers, hailed the visit the as the cementing of US goodwill for India.

He said that there was no chill in Indo-US relations despite minor disagreements on some issues.

“We will play very large roles over the reminder of this century which the US couldn’t do in the nineteenth and twentieth century…President Obama’s trip to India which he undertakes in a few days from now will be his longest so far to a foreign nation,” Summers said.