Big breakthroughs unlikely during PM’s US visit: Inderfurth

President Barack Obama's meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Washington on Friday is expected to re-energise the India-US relationship, a top former American diplomat for the region said on Tuesday, but cautioned against expectations of any major breakthrough.

"I think the principle benefit would be greater visibility to the relationship at the highest level with President Obama and Prime Minister Singh," Karl F 'Rick' Inderfurth, the former assistant secretary of state for South Asian Affairs, told PTI in the US capital.

"We can make some progress and some movement, but neither side can expect any major breakthroughs between now and the Indian elections. Again we do not want to go backwards. We can go forward. That is why I am very pleased that President Obama invited Prime Minister Singh to Washington.

''Singh has been a very, very big proponent of taking the US-India relationship to the next level and I think this is an acknowledgement of that," he said in response to a question.

"There are concerns that the US-India relationship has reached a plateau or we may be on the doldrums. I do not agree with those things. But I understand that people need to see attention at the highest level to re-energize the relationship, rekindle the relationship. So I think that would be the principle thing that I would like to accomplish," said Inderfurth, who is currently a senior adviser and Wadhwani chair in US-India policy studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a prestigious American think-tank.

Inderfurth said there are so many things that are taking place within the United States and India that do not relate to the bilateral relationship.

While the Obama administration is focused on the Syrian crisis, the Singh government is having to spend its time and energy on the economic situation and the upcoming elections, he said.

"So there are good reasons why both countries are not focusing much on each other. What President Obama and Prime Minister Singh can do is to remind people that this is one of the most important relationships that we have and to talk about some of the unfinished business that we might try to accomplish in the next few months," Inderfurth said.