Who Will Be The Chief Guest On India’s Republic Day Celebration?

History of Republic Day

Since 1950, India has been hosting the head of state or government of another country as the state guest of honor for Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi. Indonesian President Sukarno was invited in 1950.
The guest country is chosen to keep in view strategic, economic, and political interests.
During 1950–1970, a number of NAM countries were hosted by India.
In 1968 and 1974, India played host to two countries on the same Republic Day.
In 1952, 1953, and 1966, the Republic Day celebrations were held without a foreign leader as chief guest.
India had not invited any foreign leader as the Chief Guest for the Republic Day celebrations in 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Former US President Barack Obama (2015), Russian President Vladimir Putin (2007), former French presidents Nicholas Sarkozy (2008), and Francois Holland (2016) have also been invited to this occasion.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi will be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in January 2023.
Prime Minister Sh. Narender Modi had sent a formal invitation to al-Sisi which was handed over to the Egyptian President by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on October 16.
This is the first time that the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt will be the Chief guest on our Republic Day.
Both countries are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year.
India will assume the G20 Presidency on December 1 this year and Egypt has been invited as a ‘Guest Country’ during G-20 in 2022-23.

Al Sisi is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has served as the current president of Egypt since 2014.
He has also served as deputy Prime minister and minister of defense.
In 2013, al-Sisi was named “Time Person of the Year” in Time magazine’s annual reader poll.
He was sworn in on 8 June 2014, that event was marked by a public holiday in Egypt in conjunction with festivals held nationwide.

Chief Guest is portrayed as participating in India’s pride and happiness and reflects the friendship between the two nations.
The Chief Guest is the center of all ceremonial activities on Republic day.
They are given the guard of honor at Rashtrapati Bhawan followed by a reception by the President of India.
This event plays a very important role to renew ties between India and the nation of its invitee, having greater political and diplomatic significance.

The process of selection of Chief Guest starts 6 months before the event.
All kinds of considerations are taken into account by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for this process.
The most important consideration for selection is the nature of the relationship between India and the country concerned.
The political, Commercial, military, and economic interests of India are the base of this decision.
Minister of External Affairs chooses a list of potential candidates for Chief Guest.
The schedules and unavoidable prior commitments of the head of state also affect the process of selection of a Chief Guest.
After the process of selection is completed and a candidate is finalized, more official communication between India and the country of the invitee follows.
The chief of Protocol works on the details of the program. A detailed program for the trip and the Republic Day ceremonies is shared by the Protocol Chief with his counterpart from the visiting nation.