Quad: No Biden at Republic Day, Quad summit postponed

India has postponed the Quad summit it had proposed to host in the last week of January next year with government sources saying the dates under consideration didn’t work with all the Quad partners, and confirming effectively that President Joe Biden has declined India’s invite for the January 26 Republic Day celebrations.
India had sought to time the summit with Republic Day by proposing to host it on January 27, hoping President Joe Biden would find it more worthwhile to visit India as chief guest for the parade if the Quad summit, with its substantive agenda, also took place during his stay in India.
This was the third time in 10 years that the Indian government had invited a US president for the Republic Day parade. While President Obama became the first US president to attend the parade in 2015, his successor Donald Trump declined the same invite 4 years later because of “scheduling constraints”.
Unlike in the case of Trump, Biden will not be able to make it at a time the normally robust partnership is witnessing rare discord over the foiled plot allegedly masterminded by an Indian official to assassinate Khalistan leader and US national Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. However, unlike in the case with Canada which too has alleged Indian involvement in the killing of a Khalistan activist, the strife with the US hasn’t resulted in an ugly and public diplomatic spat as India has taken the US allegations seriously, saying these have a bearing on its own security, and has constituted an enquiry committee to look into the issue.
According to Indian officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Biden’s unavailability may again be a scheduling issue as the date for the president’s annual State of the Union address, which is delivered in January or February, has not been decided yet. US authorities said Tuesday though they had no announcement to make on India’s Republic Day invite to the president.
PM Narendra Modi had invited Biden for the Republic Day, an important diplomatic event too as it’s graced by the presence of a friendly foreign leader, when he hosted him on the margins of the G20 summit in September. This was confirmed by US ambassador Eric Garcetti in a media interaction after a few weeks, even though the Indian side never spoke publicly about it.
According to diplomatic sources, both Japan and Australia had agreed to have the Quad summit on January 27 but wanted Biden to confirm his visit first. With that confirmation not coming, India had no option but to call off the summit in January. Being a Saturday, January 27 would have allowed Japanese PM Fumio Kishida to travel to India even in the middle of the Diet session. For Australia PM Anthony Albanese too, January 27 was the preferred date as Australia also observes its national day on January 26. Had Biden agreed to come and participate in the Quad summit too on Saturday, he would have had to spend almost 2 full days here, something he would be loath to in a busy election year.
“The Quad Summit in India is proposed to be held later in 2024. We are looking for revised dates,” said an official source.