According to a statement made on Sunday by the Ministry of External Affairs, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt will be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in January.
“This is the first time that the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt will be the Chief Guest at our Republic Day,” the MEA said in a statement.
On October 16, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar presented Egyptian President al-Sisi with a formal invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the two nations’ establishing of diplomatic relations.
Egypt has been invited as a ‘Guest Country’ during India’s Presidency of G-20 in 2022-23, the statement said.
“India and Egypt enjoy warm and friendly relations based on civilisational and deep-rooted people-to-people ties,” the statement said.
Since 1950, when Sukarno, the president of Indonesia at the time, was invited as the chief guest, leaders of allied countries have attended the Republic Day celebrations.
The Republic Day celebrations were not attended by a foreign head of state in 1952, 1953, or 1966.
Boris Johnson, the then-prime minister of the United Kingdom, was invited as the chief guest in 2021, but his trip had to be postponed because to the increase in COVID-19 cases in Britain.
As the chief guests for the Republic Day celebrations this year, India had invited the heads of the five Central Asian Republics who were coming to Delhi for the India-Central Asia Summit.
The visit was postponed, though, because of the increase in COVID-19 cases in India. The summit between India and Central Asia took place virtually.
In 2018, all ten heads of state from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) were present at the Republic Day parade.
Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil at the time, was the chief guest in 2020.
In the past, former French presidents Nicholas Sarkozy (2008), Francois Hollande (2016), Russian President Vladimir Putin (2007), and former US President Barack Obama (2015) have all attended Republic Day ceremonies as the chief guests.