New Delhi: US President Joe Biden is not going to be the chief guest of the Republic Day celebrations next year, with the scheduled Quad summit in January also being postponed, official sources indicated on Tuesday.
Back in September, the US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, publicly acknowledged that New Delhi extended an invitation to the US President to be the chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations in January 2024. While Garcetti didn’t publicly link it to the Quad summit, India’s external affairs minister himself confirmed in November that India would host a leaders’ meeting “early next year”.
With just a month left, Indian official sources have said that the Quad summit is “proposed to be held later in 2024”. “We are looking for revised dates as the dates currently under consideration do not work with all the Quad partners,” they said.
The statement does not address the invitation to Biden, but it is highly unlikely that the US President would be considering two separate visits to India in one year. He was already in New Delhi in September for the G-20 summit.
The US embassy has not issued any separate announcement on the fate of the Indian invitation.
Despite serious allegations by US federal prosecutors a fortnight that an “identified Indian government employee” had directed the plot to assassinate a US citizen on American soil, bilateral relations between the two countries have continued. Even before the charges were filed, when the US government was aware of the alleged plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, engagements between Washington and New Delhi took a business-as-usual approach.
In September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Indian agents of involvement in the murder of a Khalistan activist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in June. After this claim, at least some evidence for which was provided by the US in connection with its investigation into the Pannun ‘plot’, the US secretary of state and defence secretary travelled to India for a 2+2 meeting.
With Australia also celebrating its National Day on January 26, it had been a non-starter to consider all the quad leaders as chief guests for Republic Day. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also had some scheduling conflicts due to the parliamentary session.
Although Biden was invited for the Republic Day, the intention was for the leaders from Japan and Australia to join him for the leaders’ summit on January 27. However, India’s invitations to US presidents to be chief guests at Republic Day functions have always clashed with the annual State of the Union address, which is scheduled to be delivered by the US president at the start of the calendar year to a joint session of the US Congress.
To date, Barack Obama was the only US president to be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day parade. With the invitation sent in the first year of Modi becoming prime minister, the Obama administration went an extra step to work with the US Congress to ensure that preparations for the annual address did not impact the presidential visit. He delivered the address on January 20, 2015.
Therefore, with Biden declining India’s invite this time around, it will be the second time that the US has turned down an invitation for the President to be the chief guest. India had previously invited Donald Trump to be the chief guest for the 2019 Republic Day parade. However, the Trump administration had turned down the invite citing domestic commitments, especially the State of the Union address.
Last time, Washington expressed its regret to India over Trump not being able to attend the Republic Day parade, prompting India to arrange for another world leader to be the chief guest. In 2019, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa took on the mantle.
Finding time for the Quad summit later in 2024 will also be tricky as Biden’s re-election campaign will be in full swing. The US will have its presidential elections in early November 2024.
With about six weeks left for Republic Day, it remains to be seen who will step forward to be the chief guest at the national celebrations this time around.
India will go into campaign mode with general elections set to be held in April-May next year. Therefore, it seems that the Quad summit has now been postponed for the latter half of 2024.
