Egyptian President likely to be chief guest of Republic Day
India has invited Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi as the chief guest on Republic Day 2023, said the Ministry of External Affairs in an official statement on Sunday.
This would be the first time that an Egyptian president would be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations.
Egypt is also one of the nine guest countries to the G20 summit under India’s presidency in 2023. India will officially assume the G20 presidency from the current chair Indonesia on December 1.
“India and Egypt enjoy warm and friendly relations based on civilizational and deep-rooted people-to-people ties. Both countries are celebrating the 75th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations this year. Egypt has been invited as a ‘Guest Country’ during India’s G20 Presidency in 2022-23,” the statement read.
Last month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is learnt to have extended the formal invitation to el-Sisi during an official visit to Cairo.
It is pertinent to mention that India has not invited any foreign dignitary as the chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations in 2021 and 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Before Covid-19 pandemic, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was the chief guest to participate in the 2020 Republic Day celebrations on January 26.
The invitation of chief guest came after Jaishankar’s recent visit to Egypt during which he highlighted that many well-reputed Indian companies are coming to invest in the Arab nation.