Trump said to have declined India invite

United States President Donald Trump has reportedly declined India’s invitation to be the chief guest for the annual Republic Day parade in New Delhi.

While an official statement has not been issued, several media reports have surfaced about Trump’s decision said to have been conveyed in a letter citing ‘domestic commitments’ as the reason for his inability to make it to India for the event on January 26, next year.

The invitation was sent to the US President in April, however, the US authorities had said that the final decision would be taken only after the inaugural ‘2+2 dialogue’ in September.

The dialogue is called ‘2+2’ because two appointed ministers from each country meet to discuss issues of strategic and security interest. The talks took place this year with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis representing the United States.

Prior to the ‘2+2’ talks the US had made clear that there were two things that India ‘shouldn’t ideally do’. One was the missile defence deal with Russia and the other being the oil imports from Iran. India and Russia this month officially signed a $5.2 billion deal for the S-400 air defence system to be delivered by 2020.