The Obamas' First State Dinner: The Prime Minister of India is the Guest

President and Mrs. Obama hosted their first state dinner this week at the White House.  The guests of honor were Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India and his wife, Gursharan Kaur. 

Honoring India with the first State Dinner should be seen as a very important gesture toward strengthening relations between the United States and India.  Washington observers speculate that India's cooperation may be needed as part of the solution President Obama hopes to craft for eventually extracting the United States from the war in Afghanistan.

The first White House State Dinner was hosted in 1874 by President Ulysses S. Grant in honor of King David Kalakawa of the Hawaiian Islands (then known as the Sandwich Islands).  

(mew)