President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s reaffirmation of their commitment to energy cooperation during this past weekend’s state visit to India highlights the special position India occupies in energy geopolitics.

As provocative, bumptious and aggressive as Shah Mehmood Qureshi can be — Pakistan's foreign minister was not quite the loose thread that pulled at the fabric of the Islamabad talks and left both countries embarrassingly exposed and without any fig leaves to hide modestly behind.

For the week leading up to the Prime Minister of India’s arrival to Washington, DC, the first State Visit for the Obama Administration, the anticipation in this city was noticeable, a temporary relief from the gloomy winter in an even gloomier economy.  Policymakers and pundits in the city and region described the importance of this meeting between the world’s largest democracy

Although Prime Minister Singh had met President Obama earlier, they did not have the time together needed to take stock of each other and create the basis for a common understanding of the issues which preoccupy our two nations.  The Indian Prime Minister attaches special importance to the relationship with the United States, and he has for the better part of two decades.

Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s official visit to Washington D.C. was hailed as a success by both sides.  Though the visit did not culminate in the United States operationalizing the 2005 civilian nuclear deal, the meetings between the two heads of state went a great way towards reaffirming that the United States values this bilateral relationship and calming Indian fears of increased U.S. funding towards Pakistan and U.S. support for a regionally assertive China.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says Pakistan is “compiling hard evidence of India’s involvement” in terrorist attacks on Pakistan’s public and its armed forces. If he and the Interior Minister are correct, then we must conclude that the Indians are psychotics possessed with a death wish or, perhaps, plain stupid.

The South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council asked observers of South Asia to contribute their thoughts to a forum, Passage to America: Prime Minister Singh's Visit, on the significance of the Indian Prime Minister's official trip to the U.S.

Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s first state visit to Washington next week is the highly awaited event of the political season for this "city of magnificent intentions."  Though of course, Dickens did use that phrase in a different context in the 19th century.