George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st President of the United States of America, who passed away last night at the age of 94, was the most internationalist of US Presidents – arguably the last one whose Presidency was driven more by considerations of global geopolitics than domestic politics.

India never quite warmed to George H.W. Bush. Partly this was because, with so many big-ticket global headline issues on his agenda, India never loomed large among his concerns. Partly, it may have been due to the fact that he lacked the charisma of his youthful successor, Bill Clinton, whose visit to New Delhi in 2000 is credited with constituting the first major breakthrough in Indo-US relations.