India invites Trump to be R-Day chief guest in 2019

The Narendra Modi government has reportedly invited US President Donald Trump to be the chief guest for next year's Republic Day parade. It has been learnt that the invite was sent out in April but India is still awaiting a formal response to the invite.

The Narendra Modi government has reportedly invited US President Donald Trump to be the chief guest for next year's Republic Day parade. It has been learnt that the invite was sent out in April but India is still awaiting a formal response to the invite.

However, the Trump administration is reportedly favourably considering it as the US has indicated to the Indian government over the past few weeks, which has seen several rounds of diplomatic engagement on the topic.

Earlier in 2015, the then US President Barack Obama was the chief guest during the Republic Day celebration. It was also the first R-Day celebration during the Modi regime.

Government sources said if Trump accepted the invitation, this could be touted as India's biggest foreign policy coup in the past few years.

This, sources said, would also be tom-tommed in run up to general elections next year. Recent developments have left many questioning whether India figures in Trump's priority list at all, as it has certainly done under Obama.

Last month, the much-talked about Indo-US 2+2 dialogue got postponed for the second time.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman were scheduled to meet with their American counterparts, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and defence secretary James Mattis, on June 6 but the US had postponed the maiden dialogue citing unavoidable reasons.

According to sources, India plans to address several friction points during this meeting.

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