From Bill Clinton to Barack Obama, here are all the US Presidents who visited India

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India and the US embarked on a trade partnership in 1949 when India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited the US. But it wasn’t until the next decade that a US President came to India. The first visit was by Dwight D Eisenhower in 1959 who received a 21-gun salute. During his four-day visit, he gave a public speech at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi and also addressed both the houses of Parliament.

Though it was a landmark visit for India, Eisenhower also established close relations with Pakistan. The next US president John F Kennedy never came to India but the first lady Jaqueline Kennedy did.

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Richard M Nixon, Kennedy’s successor, came to India in July 1969 to ease tensions between the US and India. He reportedly came to build trust with Gandhi. Her 1966 visit to the US turned out be a spectacular win for India when President Lyndon Johnson pledged large tonnes of food and aid. However, Johnson also veered towards Pakistan which resulted in strain in the relations.

But the visit did not go down as planned. Nixon is known to have used derogatory words for Indians. Two year after his visit, Nixon stood with Pakistan during the 1971 Bangladesh War.

Unlike Eisenhower who stayed for four days, Nixon spent less than a day in India.

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It took another nine years for Washington to send a President to India. Jimmy Carter arrived in India in January 1978 — three months after India concluded its general election in 1977. Indira Gandhi lost to the Janata Party’s Morarji Desai after people revolted against her for emergency period. Carter reportedly wanted to ease the tension between both countries — the Bangladesh War.

During his three-day visit he along with mother Miss Lillian — who is said to have spent some time in India as a Peace Corps volunteer — addressed a joint session in Parliament. He also gifted a television set to a village near Delhi, which changed its name to Caterpuri.

However things didn’t go as planned for Carter. He wanted Desai to call off India's nuclear ambition and had asked India to sign a Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. India refused and that soured the relations.

The trade between US and India however became stronger after Manmohan Singh — the then Finance Minister — liberalised Indian markets. Soon, the US became India’s largest trading partner but no President came to India for 22 long years.

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Bill Clinton visited India when Atal Bihar Vajpayee was the prime minister. Clinton came to India along with his daughter Chelsea during his five-day visit — the longest ever for any US president. He visited many cities including Hyderabad, Agra, Jaipur, Mumbai and Delhi.

His visit was timed two years after the US imposed military sanctions on India and Pakistan for 1998 nuclear tests. That year, Clinton was also facing criticism for the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Clinton’s diplomatic intervention in the 1999 Kargil War had helped India. Clinton warned Pakistan to withdraw their position behind the Line of Control. Else, he said, the US would blame Pakistan for the war.

George W Wish and First Lady Laura Bush visited India in 2006 — six years after Clinton’s visit. At that time, Congress was in power with Manmohan Singh as the prime minister. Bush spent 60-hours in India during which he delivered a speech to a select audience at Purana Qila in New Delhi.

During this visit, US and India finalised the nuclear deal — which later allowed India to become the only country outside Non-Proliferation treaty to pursue nuclear commerce.

Barack Obama was the sixth US President to visit India with First Lady Michelle Obama. During his visit, he met the survivors of the 26/11 attacks, students of St. Xavier’s college and children at an NGO. Michelle Obama danced and sang with the children. Obama supported India’s demand for a permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

In 2015 — Obama’s second visit — he became the first US president to India’s Republic Day Celebrations. This time, Modi was the prime minister of the country. Obama promised to give $4 billion to India.

Obama’s two visits during 2010 and 2015 signified how India and the US have evolved their relationship. 'It showed that New Delhi had become important in the US scheme of things,’ then US Ambassador Lalit Mansingh said.

See also: Donald Trump ‘likes Modi’ but US may not sign a trade deal with India — here’s why