India becomes the fourth nation to have a secure line of communication with the US.
By Raghavendra M
Follow @ambazaarmag
The hotlines of communication between President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have become operational recently.
With this, India becomes the fourth nation to have a secure line of communication with the United States, the other three countries being Russia, Great Britain and China.
The decision to set-up a hotline between the leaders of the world’s largest democracies was made when Obama visited India as the chief guest of the Republic Day celebration on January 26.
This secure line of communication will help the leaders to discuss key bilateral, regional and global issues more frequently. The Modi and Obama are yet to use the hotline.
“Hotline has connotation of some crisis management phone or system that was used during the cold war to defuse crisis. That’s not what we have,” Peter R Lavoy, Special Assistant to US President and Senior Director for South Asian Affairs at the National Security Council of the White House, told PTI.
Modi and Obama are likely to meet in New York during the PM’s visit to attend the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly in September.