New Delhi: President Joe Biden has been invited to be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations on 26 January, revealed United States ambassador Eric Garcetti Wednesday during an interaction organised by think tank Ananta Aspen Centre in New Delhi. Should he accept the invitation, Biden will become the first US President to visit India twice in a single term, according to the records made available by the Office of the Historian under the US State Department.
PM Narendra Modi extended the invitation to Biden on the sidelines of the bilateral meeting that took place between the two leaders on 8 September during the G20 summit in New Delhi, Garcetti said.
The only other US President to visit India twice was Barack H. Obama, but his visits occurred across his two terms in office and not during a single term — the first being in November 2010 and, the second, for the 2015 Republic Day celebrations as the chief guest.
In fact, Obama was the first US President to be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations. After him, President Donald J. Trump was also invited in 2018 as the chief guest for next year’s celebrations — an invitation confirmed by the then White House Press Secretary Sarah H. Sanders — but he did not make it that year. South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa was the chief guest for the 2019 Republic Day celebrations.
Meanwhile, Trump visited India in February 2020, a month before the first Covid-19 lockdown. The then Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was the chief guest for that year’s Republic Day parade.
Earlier chief guests
The Republic Day parade on Kartavya Path, New Delhi, is presided over by the President of India, while foreign leaders are invited as chief guests.
Chief guests are often invited keeping in mind India’s diplomatic and economic priority. In 2023, the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, was the chief guest. During President Sisi’s visit to India in January, the two countries elevated their ties to a strategic partnership.
There were no chief guests during 2021 and 2022 celebrations due to the Covid-19 pandemic. President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil was the chief guest during the 2020 parade.
In 2018, all 10 leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) were present as chief guests for the parade. The then crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was present as the chief guest in 2017, while in 2016, it was President Francois Hollande of France.
Other foreign leaders who have been chief guests include Prime Minister Shinzo Abe from Japan (2014), President Nicolas Sarkozy from France (2008), President Lula da Silva from Brazil (2004), President Nelson Mandela from South Africa (1995) and Queen Elizabeth II of the UK (1961).
Leaders from France and the UK have received the most invitations — five times each — while leaders from Bhutan and the Soviet Union and its successor state Russia have received four invitations each in the past.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
Also read: India ‘fifth superpower of the world’, says African Union Chair, thanks Modi for inclusion in G20