India has invited United States (US) President Donald Trump as the chief guest for Republic Day celebrations, Times of India has reported. It is said that the invite was sent in April, and Washington has been considering the invite positively.
If the invite is accepted, Trump will be the second American president to attend the Republic day celebrations in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s term. The move comes amidst the global trade war where US is increasing tariffs on imports from Asian countries, especially India and China.
Although President Trump’s moves have largely been directed towards balancing the trade deficit with China, the US recently increased duties on steel and aluminium exports from India too. As a retaliatory measure, India too hiked tariffs on 30 import items from US.
Earlier, US had threatened India of sanctions being imposed, if the latter goes ahead with S-400 Air Defence Systems (ADS) purchase from Russia. However, India had reiterated its commitment to procure the same.
US had recently postponed the 2+2 meeting with India citing ‘scheduling issue’. The meeting was intended to iron out the differences between the two countries.
In 2015, the then President Barack Obama had attended the Republic day celebrations as a chief guest.