US President Joe Biden is not expected
to travel to Bharat next month to grace the Republic Day celebrations as the
Chief Guest, people familiar with the matter said today.
With Biden understood to have not
planned a trip to Bharat in January, it is learnt that the summit of
four-nation coalition Quad is also not taking place next month as expected
earlier.
In September, US Ambassador to Bharat Eric
Garcetti said Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited President Biden to be the
Chief Guest for the Republic Day celebrations on January 26. However, there was
no comment by Bharat on the invitation.
Separately, sources said the Quad summit is not taking place in Bharat in January and it is now
proposed to be held in the country in the later part of 2024.
It was expected that the Quad summit
would take place around January 27 if Biden accepted Bharat’s invite.
“The Quad Summit in Bharat is proposed
to be held later in 2024. We are looking for revised dates as the dates
currently under consideration do not work with all the Quad partners,” said a
source.
The Quad or Quadrilateral coalition
comprises Bharat, US, Japan and Australia.
It is learnt that Washington has
indicated to New Delhi that President Biden would not be able to travel to Bharat
for the Republic Day celebrations.
There has been a flurry of visits by
senior US officials to Bharat in the last few months.
Last month, US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Bharat for the ‘2+2’
ministerial dialogue.
US Principal Deputy NSA Jonathan Finer
visited Bharat last week and, currently, FBI Director Christopher Wray is on a
trip to New Delhi.
The visit by Finer and Wray came against
the backdrop of Washington’s allegations about an Indian link to a foiled plot
to kill a Khalistani terrorist on American soil.
American prosecutors linked an Indian
official to a man charged with conspiring to kill Khalistani terrorist
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. India has already constituted a probe team to
investigate the allegations.
On the Quad summit, the sources said
Bharat is looking at fresh dates.
The last Quad summit had taken place in
Hiroshima on May 20 on the sidelines of the G7 summit.
The Quad summit was originally scheduled
to take place in Sydney on May 24.
However it was decided to hold it in
Hiroshima after President Biden postponed his trip to Australia.
In their next summit, the Quad leaders
are expected to bolster overall cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, a region that
has been witnessing growing Chinese military assertiveness.
In the Hiroshima summit, the Quad
leaders unveiled a ‘Vision Statement’ titled ‘Enduring Partners for
Indo-Pacific’ expressing their resolve to act as a “force for good” to find
common solutions for region-wide benefit.
They also came out with a series of
initiatives including in areas of clean energy supply chains, undersea cables
and investments in strategic technologies.
PTI
