New Delhi: US President Donald Trump has turned down India’s invitation to be the chief guest during the 2019 Republic Day parade in New Delhi. This comes at a time when relations between the two democratic countries are not in the best of health.
The US had recently warned India of possible consequences if it goes ahead with signing the S-400 missile system deal with Russia. However, India had signed the deal for five such systems when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited India earlier this month.
Besides this, the Trump administration has been threatening India with sanctions if it continues to procure oil from Iran. India continues to import oil from Iran.
According to sources on the corridors of power, the reason cited by the Trump administration to turn down India’s invite to attend the Republic Day is that President Trump has other pressing engagements on the same date. Trump, reportedly, has to deliver the State of The Union (SOTU) address and its timing conflicts with the Indian Republic Day celebrations.
However, in 2015, when the then US President Barack Obama visited India for Republic Day, the date of the SOTU address was deferred. The date of the address is not fixed, but it has to be somewhere between January 22 and the first week of February.
Trump turning down the invitation could be seen as a low point in India-US relations, despite the good rapport Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the former appear to have in public.
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