Obama India Trip : The much awaited President Barack Obama's visit to India is not going to cost $200 million a day, contrary to reports doing the rounds. This estimate figure first estimated by an Indian media outlet which is now doing rounds on conversational radio talk shows is an arrogant over-estimation.
The truth is that it's almost impossible to get even a close figure of how much this or any other trip taken by the President is going to cost. The administration has kept the figures the under wraps due to security concerns. Obama's India trip is scheduled to be a leg in his Asian trip that includes South Korea, Indonesia and Japan.
"The numbers reported in this article have no basis in reality," said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor. "Due to security concerns, we are unable to outline details associated with security procedures and costs, but it's safe to say these numbers are wildly inflated."
These Presidential trips however do cost millions of dollars per day. The President takes an entourage including bulletproof limousines to loads of aides, which comes awfully handy in emergency situations, such as the terrorist attacks on 9/11 when George W. Bush was in Florida or when the erstwhile President Ronald Reagan was traveling in Asia when the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Russia blew up in 1986.
These foreign trips form an integral part of the Presidential duties. India is a rising economic power and it's rivalry with one of the most dangerous nations, Pakistan makes it an even more strategic visit. Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim majority nation. South Korea is a site of the G-20 global economic summit and Japan is hosting the annual Asian economic summit, which Obama's predecessors have also attended.
