Traditionally, India has attached a lot of diplomatic importance to its choice of the chief guest invited for the Republic Day. Diplomatic channels begin the work months in advance and name or names are finalised at least weeks ahead of the event marking India’s declaration as a democratic republic — announced adoption of the Constitution of the country post Independence.
This year’s chief guest for the Republic Day event is yet not officially confirmed. The chatter in news media suggests that Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto is the government’s choice for India’s Republic Day 2025. However, there is also confusion around the purported delay in official confirmation by the government. Republic Day is barely two weeks away.
Reports suggest that the Indonesian president has tagged a Pakistan trip to India’s Republic Day visit. This possible plan of Prabowo has reportedly made New Delhi to dissuade Prabowo to skip Pakistan from the current itinerary. India has long pushed for de-hyphenating Pakistan from its bilateral ties with other countries.
Pakistan has reportedly already started its preparation to host Prabowo. As per a report in Pakistan-based Business Recorder newspaper, the Indonesian president is likely to begin his three-day official visit to Pakistan from January 26 itself.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has set up a committee, headed by his government’s planning and development minister Ahsan Iqbal, to finalise all proposals and actions ahead of the Indonesian leader’s visit to the country.
India extends invites for Republic Day to only those countries with which it has strong diplomatic relations. The optics of Prabowo of combining his India’s trip with Pakistan is something that the Indian government is reportedly trying to avoid.
Ties between India and Pakistan, the two neighbouring nations, have deteriorated in recent years over Islamabad’s support to cross-border terrorism. The two countries were engaged in an aerial dogfight in 2019 following India’s air strikes on terror training centre in Pakistan’s Balakot following a terrorist attack targeting Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to a report by The Times of India, New Delhi has raised the issue diplomatically with Jakarta, hoping to dissuade Prabowo from directly travelling to Islamabad after India’s Republic Day celebrations.
The Indian government views Prabowo taking a direct flight to Pakistan after the Republic Day parade as bad optics for its principled stand of not engaging with a country that uses terrorism as a tool of foreign policy.
Another report by Deccan Herald, quoting a source in New Delhi, said the officials of India and Indonesia were in discussion about the itinerary of the Indonesian president.
The last time an Indonesian president visited India for Republic Day celebrations was in 2018 when then-President Joko Widodo was a chief guest. Interestingly, Widodo also flew directly to Islamabad from New Delhi, but on that occasion, he was among 10 Southeast Asian leaders invited as joint chief guests for Republic Day. India has extended a joint invitation to all Asean heads of state to commemorate 25 years of engagement with the bloc.
In 2010, former president of United States Barack Obama had dropped his plan to have a stopover in Islamabad, while visiting New Delhi after being informed about the sensitivities of India.
In February 2019, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman de-hyphenated his Islamabad visit with a brief tour to Dubai.
With inputs from agencies.
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