Table of Contents
REPUBLIC DAY CHIEF GUEST
The visit of the Chief Guest at the Republic Day parade is similar to a State visit, but given the ceremony involved, it is the highest honour that we can accord to our guest in protocol terms.
THE HONOUR
The Chief Guest is given the ceremonial guard of honour at Rashtrapati Bhavan, he attends the reception in the evening hosted by the President of India, he lays a wreath at Rajghat, there is a banquet in his honour, a lunch hosted by the Prime Minister, and calls by the Vice-President and the External Affairs Minister.
GUARD OF HONOUR
WREATH AT RAJGHAT
THE PROCESS OF INVITATION
The government extends its invitation to a Head of State or Government after careful consideration. This process commences almost six months ahead of Republic Day. There is a range of issues that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) considers, the foremost among which is the nature of India’s relationship with the country concerned. Among other factors are political, economic, and commercial relations, the neighbourhood, military cooperation, prominence in regional groupings, or past association in the Non Aligned Movement, in which newly independent countries united in a common struggle against colonialism, apartheid, and the domination of the developed countries.
LIST OF CHIEF GUESTS AT INDIAN REPUBLIC DAY
REPUBLIC DAY CHIEF GUEST
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa will be chief guest this time. It was widely speculated that US President Donald Trump will be chief guest at the Republic Day function in 2019, however, he declined India’s request citing ‘scheduling constraints’. Although US President Barack Obama had accepted Prime Minister Modi’s request to be the chief guest in 2015.
PREVIOUS SOUTH AFRICAN GUEST
PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA
It will be Ramaphosa’s first visit to India as head of state. About 1.5 million Indian origin people live in South Africa while over 150 Indian companies have invested in South Africa.
NOTES
With the objective to grow business ties between the two countries and hoping to achieve a trade target of $ 20 bn by 2021 India is among the top five trading partners of South Africa. The bilateral trade has increased to $ 10.65 billion in 2018- 19 from $ 9.38 billion in 2017-18, growing steadily from S$4.7 billion in 2007 to the present. The total trade reached a peak of $15 billion in 2012 – before the global economic slowdown and domestic political factors put a brake on the rapid expansion.
INDIA SOUTH AFRICA
The two countries are also working together through IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).
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