New Delhi: India is looking forward to inviting top leaders of the central Asian countries to grace the upcoming Republic Day celebrations, a move that comes in the backdrop of New Delhi's rapidly expanding ties with the region.
According to a PTI report, the option of inviting the leaders of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan as chief guests is being pursued for Republic Day 2022.
"Formal invitations have been sent to the heads of states and their replies are yet to be received," an official source told news agency ANI. After taking over as Prime Minister in 2014, PM Narendra Modi had visited all five Central Asian countries in 2015. The decision to invite Central Asian leaders as chief guests for Republic Day event 2022 is quite in line with India's Central Asia policy.
At the same time, they said there is no finality on the guest list yet while not ruling out other options as well.
India had invited leaders of 10-nation influential regional bloc ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) for the Republic Day celebrations in 2018 and all of them attended it.
In the last few years, the Narendra Modi government has been empashizing on enhancing overall cooperation with the energy-rich Central Asian countries, considering them to be part of its extended neighbourhood.
The upswing in India's engagement with the region followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's whirlwind tour of the five countries in July 2015 that resulted in the expansion of two-way ties in a range of areas.
India's gesture to invite the leaders from Central Asian countries to attend Republic Day parade 2022 is significant in light of the recent developments in Afghanistan as well as the Chinese manoeuvres along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The national security advisors of all the five Central Asian countries attended an India-hosted regional dialogue on Afghanistan on November 10. The NSAs of Russia and Iran also participated in it.
While India did not have a chief guest in 2021 as the world was battling with Covid 19 pandemic, the country is looking forward to using the upcoming event as an opportunity to strengthen ties with the Asian nations.
Chief guests in the last few years on Republic Day
India invited British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as the Republic Day chief guest and he accepted had the invitation. However, three weeks ahead of the event, Johnson cancelled the visit to New Delhi following a surge in COVID-19 cases in the UK.
Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro was the chief guest at Republic Day celebrations in 2020 and he was the third President from Brazil to have graced the occasion.
In 2019, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was the chief guest at the R-Day parade while in 2018, leaders of ASEAN countries attended the celebrations.
In 2017, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was the chief guest at the celebrations, while the then French president Francois Hollande graced the occasion in 2016.
In 2015, the then US president Barack Obama was the chief guest.