US President Joe Biden will not be travelling to India next month to attend the Republic Day celebrations as the Chief Guest, according to people familiar with the matter. US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti in September had said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited Biden to be the Chief Guest for the Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 2024.
Possible reasons for Biden's decision to not travel to India are believed to be his State of the Union address in late January or early February, his re-election campaign and the US focus on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Meanwhile, India has decided to host the Quad summit later this year instead of January as earlier planned.
"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," said sources.
There had been no official statement from India on inviting Biden to the Republic Day celebrations on January 26. The people familiar with the matter also said that Washington has already conveyed to India that Biden will not be able to make it to the event.
US officials visiting India
Over the past few months, several US officials have visited India, including US Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer last week and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Christopher Wray, who is still in the midst of his visit to New Delhi.
The visit by Finer and Wray came against the backdrop of Washington's allegations about an Indian link to a foiled plot to kill designated Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil, in which an Indian official was recently indicted.
Last month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin visited India for the '2+2' ministerial dialogue. In September, Biden himself had attended the G20 Summit in New Delhi and personally met PM Modi.
The Quad - comprising the US, India, Japan and Australia - is a grouping of countries driven by shared interests and values and interested in strengthening a rules-based order in the strategically important Indo-Pacific region. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended this year's summit in Hiroshima, Japan, on May 20, along with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida and Biden.
PM Modi had last year asserted the importance of consolidating Quad’s constructive agenda and delivering tangible outcomes for the region. He also invited Quad leaders to India in 2024. The leaders also held productive discussions about developments in the Indo-Pacific which affirmed their shared democratic values and strategic interests.
(with inputs from PTI)
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