Biden unlikely to visit India to join R-Day event

US President Joe Biden is not expected to travel to India in January to participate in the Republic Day celebrations, and the Indian side is looking at revised dates for a Quad Summit that was planned to be held next month, people familiar with the developments said on Tuesday.

- Rezaul H Laskar

A number of factors are believed to be behind the US administration's decision not to take up the Republic Day invitation, including Biden's focus on his re-election bid in the face of a resurgent campaign by former president Donald Trump, the State of the Union address that is expected in late January or early February, and a string of geopolitical crises, especially the Israel-Hamas conflict.

While there has been no official word from the Indian government on Biden being invited to be chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations on January 26, US ambassador Eric Garcetti told reporters in September that an invitation had been extended to the president by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when the two leaders held a bilateral meeting on the margins of the G20 Summit.