US President Donald Trump has turned down the Indian government’s invite to visit the country on the occasion of Republic Day. This was conveyed in the form of a letter to the Indian authorities recently. The letter is said to have comprised a regret message from Trump.
The US president’s domestic commitments, notably his State of the Union address, around that time are apparently the reason for Trump not accepting India’s invite. Trump’s response is in sharp contrast to the one from his predecessor Barack Obama who, despite being faced with the same domestic presidential obligations in 2015, agreed to visit India as Republic Day chief guest.
India had officially invited Trump for R-Day on July 13. While the US had confirmed the invite, it had said that the final decision would be taken after the inaugural 2+2 dialogue in September. Indo-US ties have been under a lot of strain lately because of differences over India’s defence purchases from Russia and also its oil imports from Iran.
Despite the United States dangling the threat of CAATSA, India went ahead and signed a deal to purchase S-400 air missile defence system with Russia during President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India. In an interaction with some Indian journalists after Putin’s visit, Russian ambassador Nikolay Kudashev complimented India for, as he said, following an independent foreign policy.
India has also refused to stop, or even cut down drastically, oil imports from Iran.
