India may host five Central Asian leaders as Republic Day chief guests

The celebrations last year were low-key, with no foreign guest, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Credit: iStock Images

India may host the leaders of the five Central Asian nations on the occasion of Republic Day on January 26 next year.

New Delhi is planning to invite the presidents of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to be the chief guests, but a final decision will be taken when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will host his counterparts from the five Central Asian nations on December 18 and 19, sources in New Delhi said.

The government will also take into account the Covid-19 situation, which will determine the scale of the Republic Day celebrations. The 2021 Republic Day was a low-key event with no foreign leader being invited due to the pandemic.

India has a tradition of hosting a foreign leader as the chief guest on the occasion of its Republic Day every year. But if it hosts the five Central Asian leaders for the ceremony on the Rajpath in New Delhi January 26 next year, it will only be the second time that multiple heads of states and governments will grace the event. Previously, leaders of the 10 Southeast Asian nations had attended the Republic Day ceremony on January 26, 2018.

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President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also hold bilateral meetings with President Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan and President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow of Turkmenistan, if they are invited to attend the Republic Day ceremony.

New Delhi is keen to step up its engagement with Central Asia as Pakistan is trying to get a strategic edge against India in the region after the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s “iron brother” China has also been expanding its geopolitical influence in the region.

Modi’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval hosted his counterparts from the five Central Asian nations as well as Iran and Russia in New Delhi last month for a consultation on the situation in Afghanistan.

The first Republic Day chief guest for the Modi government was the then United States President Barack Obama in 2015, followed by then French President Francois Hollande and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and de-facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in 2016 and 2017, respectively. The ASEAN leaders and the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro were the chief guests in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

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