Joe Biden not to attend Republic Day event in India; January Quad meet off

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, December 12

US President Joe Biden will not attend the Republic Day parade here because the Quad summit, which was to be held a day after, has been postponed.

South Block has been informed by US interlocutors that the January date was inconvenient and a date towards the end of 2024 should be instead explored, said sources. The PMs of Australia and Japan had busy schedules but had agreed to come provided Biden was also visiting.

India had proposed that the next Quad summit be held here on January 27. The intention was to ensure that the three leaders arriving for the summit could also be present at the R-Day celebrations.

Till last month, the indication from the foreign missions of other three Quad countries – Japan, Australia and the US – was that January 27 was acceptable to all four partners. The US proposal of pushing back the Quad summit date means that it will now be staged in India after the General Election in April-May. “We are looking for revised dates as the dates currently under consideration do not work with all Quad partners,” said South Block sources. India had made no formal announcement about Biden’s participation in the R-Day parade but US Ambassador Eric Garcetti had said in September that PM Narendra Modi had invited Biden when they met on the margins of the G20 summit here. This was before Canada and the US accused New Delhi of having a hand in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and the alleged attempt to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, both designated terrorists. Former US President Barack Obama had attended the Republic Day celebrations in 2015 as the chief guest. India and the US also signed the “Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region”, which marked its formal enrolment in American plans to contain China.

Then US President Donald Trump had declined PM Modi’s invitation for the 2019 Republic Day celebrations. However, Trump had conveyed his regrets nearly three months before the event, giving South Block enough time to invite South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The last time a pullout occurred was in 2021. Then UK PM Boris Johnson had excused himself due to a surge in the Covid pandemic in Britain and the attempt to draft Surinam President Chan Santokhi as a last-minute replacement did not work out. As consolation, a Bangladeshi army contingent for the first time marched down Rajpath (now Kartavya Path). Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was the chief guest.