KEY POINTS
- The White House is reportedly not making any plans for President Joe Biden to attend the event on Jan. 26
- The Quad summit, hosted by India, is also likely to be postponed
- Biden skipping the trip may affect New Delhi’s attempt to demonstrate the burgeoning U.S.-India relationship
Joe Biden is likely to skip India’s Republic Day parade after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended an invitation to the president to attend the celebrations.
The Quad summit, proposed to be held around the same time, is also likely to be postponed, reports say.
The White House is not making any plans for Biden to attend the celebrations in India on Jan. 26, Bloomberg reported, citing sources. This could affect Modi’s attempt to demonstrate India’s burgeoning relations with the U.S. and boost the electoral prospects of his political party ahead of next year’s general elections.
Washington’s envoy to India, Eric Garcetti, confirmed in September that Modi had formally invited Biden to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations during their bilateral discussion on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
The Quad summit, which was proposed to be held on Jan. 27, is also expected to be pushed to a new date. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are expected to join Biden at the upcoming Quad summit hosted by India.
“The Quad Summit in India 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,” news outlet India Today said, quoting a source.
The invitation to the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations is an honor the South Asian country reserves for the country’s closest allies and partners. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was the chief guest in 2023.
Former President Donald Trump was invited to attend the celebrations in 2019 but he could not make it.
Former President Barack Obama was the first and only U.S. president to attend the event as Modi’s guest, which was in 2015.
Biden’s invitation is seen as an outcome of the recent strengthening of the bilateral relationship between India and the U.S.
“India stands to gain ground in the field of diversification in defense acquisitions, which traditionally has been relying on Russia largely. India can also benefit from the West in gaining the latest technologies and weapon systems,” Shayesta Nishat Ahmed, a research analyst at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi, previously told International Business Times.
Washington also sees India as a key partner in promoting its strategy for the Indo-Pacific region, where China is increasingly seen as a hostile player.
“To strengthen bilateral ties and protect U.S. interests in the Indo-Pacific, the U.S. National Defense Strategy (NDS) for 2022 has named India as a key partner,” Ahmed added. “The Biden administration is aware of India’s importance in containing China’s aggressive behavior in the Indian Ocean region in order to preserve the freedom and openness of the economic sea lines of communication (SLOCs). Regular low-intensity skirmishes between China and India along the Line of Actual Control, and India’s involvement in economic and geopolitical cooperative endeavors like the QUAD further portray India’s significance for the U.S.”
India may now have to find a new guest for the Republic Day celebrations.
