As President Biden welcomed India’s prime minister to the White House, the 2 leaders had been on the lookout for greater than a advantageous vegetarian meal and an evening of glitzy leisure.

Under the guise of pomp and pageantry, state visits are an opportunity for presidents to push international dignitaries to align with American pursuits. They generally is a approach to rejoice old, ironclad alliances. And with high-profile guest lists, multicourse meals and top-flight leisure, they’re much-coveted invites in Washington.

“These are not just dinners,” mentioned Matthew Costello, a senior historian for the White House Historical Association. “There’s a lot more that goes into them in terms of planning, in terms of invitations, and a lot is geopolitics, a lot is foreign policy.”

When President Dwight D. Eisenhower invited Nikita Khrushchev, the chief of the Soviet Union, to the White House in 1959, he was centered on thawing Cold War tensions after the launch of Sputnik. Before President Barack Obama hosted President Xi Jinping of China, the 2 nations negotiated for weeks over an arms management accord for our on-line world. President Ulysses S. Grant held the primary state dinner for King David Kalakaua of Hawaii to strengthen commerce.

The dinners can even present a window into the areas the United States is prioritizing — and those being uncared for.

European and Latin American nations have obtained essentially the most state dinner invites, whereas sub-Saharan African and Southeast Asian nations have obtained the fewest, in response to a study by the Center for Global Development that tracked 40 years of state visits from the Carter to Obama administrations.

Out of 160 dinners, simply 15 had been with company from sub-Saharan Africa, the examine discovered.

“To be a foreign leader and not get the state dinner, you feel snubbed,” mentioned Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian. “It’s often the smaller countries in the world who don’t get them, but when you’re dealing with big power players like India, it’s a must.”

The invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India was not with out controversy. Mr. Biden has made the global struggle between democracy and autocracy a key a part of his international coverage, however Mr. Modi’s authorities has cracked down on dissent in ways in which have raised fears of authoritarianism.

Still, the White House views the world’s most populous nation as a doubtlessly welcome addition to its coalition in opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in addition to an important participant in its rising financial competitors with China.

The different nations whose leaders obtained the official invitation to dine with Mr. Biden — France and South Korea — have additionally been companions in Mr. Biden’s effort to confront Russia.

The state dinner can generally be a method of smoothing over hiccups amongst allies.

Mr. Biden hosted President Emmanuel Macron of France for the primary state go to of his administration, greater than a 12 months after the 2 nations feuded over a deal to offer Australians with nuclear-powered submarines. Mr. Biden invited Anthony Albanese, the prime minister of Australia, for a state go to after he canceled a visit there in May due to negotiations over the debt ceiling with congressional Republicans.

“There are multiple times we see presidents using these visits to not just describe immediate concerns, but also to talk through short-term and long-term solutions,” Mr. Costello mentioned.

Domestic politics usually grasp over the dinner, as effectively.

Julianna Smoot, Mr. Obama’s social secretary from 2010 to 2011, mentioned she made certain to ask the often-feuding majority and minority leaders of the Senate, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, to state dinners for a uncommon détente. Governors and mayors who had beforehand expressed help or campaigned for the president had been prone to make the checklist. And the first donors of presidential campaigns may anticipate an invite, notably if they’d enterprise connections to the visiting nation.

“They didn’t become donors in politics because they were slouches,” Ms. Smoot mentioned. “A lot of them do international work and have an interest” in attending the dinner.

The prospect of strengthening political partnerships abroad and inside U.S. borders was normally sufficient to get a fast response from invitees.

“You’re supposed to say yes,” Ms. Smoot mentioned of responding to the invites, “unless there’s a death in the family.”