India has invited Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson to be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 2021.
If Johnson confirms his availability and takes up the invitation, he will be sixth from the UK to be Republic Day chief guest.
Prime Minister Modi in a telephonic conversation invited him to be Republic Day chief guest on November 27.
UK PM Boris Johnson, on his bit, invited PM Modi to the G-7 summit in the UK next year.
“Had an excellent discussion with my friend, UK PM @BorisJohnson on an ambitious roadmap for India-UK ties in the next decade. We agreed to work towards a quantum leap in our cooperation in all areas – trade & investment, defence & security, climate change, and fighting Covid-19,” PM Modi wrote in his tweet on November 27.
While responding to PM Modi, UK PM Boris Johnson tweeted “Thank you @narendramodi great to speak to you. I’m very much looking forward to deepening and strengthening the UK-India relationship in 2021 and beyond!.”
He will also be the first British Prime Minister since John Major in 1993 to be chief guest at the celebrations.
Members of the British royal family have been chief guests Prince Philip in 1959 and Queen Elizabeth II in 1961. British chancellor of exchequer Rap Butler (1956, along with Japan’s former chief justice Kotaro Tanaka) and then Chief of Defence Staff Lord Louis Mountbatten (1964) have also been chief guests in the past.
