External affairs minister S. Jaishankar will represent India at the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the US on January 20 as the incoming occupant of the White House has chosen to break with tradition and invite foreign dignitaries for his big day.
Speculation was rife that Jaishankar had gone to the US at the end of December to secure an invite to Trump’s inauguration for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The external affairs ministry on Sunday announced that Jaishankar himself would represent India at the event.
Jaishankar’s December visit had become the subject of considerable chatter because of reports from the US of representatives of foreign countries lobbying with Trump’s transition team for an invite to the inauguration after he invited Chinese President Xi Jinping. Other world leaders who have been invited are Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Argentinian President Javier Milei and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, the CNN reported.
The external affairs ministry did not comment on these conjectures, maintaining that the purpose of Jaishankar’s visit was to strengthen ties, ensure continuous dialogue between the two nations and advance mutual issues. He also met incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz and other members of the transition team, besides outgoing President JoeBiden’s officials.
According to the Miami Herald, the presence of foreign dignitaries at a US President’s inauguration is unprecedented. In 2009, ahead of the first inauguration of then President-elect Barack Obama, the Associated Press had reported that the state department had informed all foreign embassies in Washington that, in keeping with past practice, their ambassadors and spouses could come to the event to represent their countries.
“Officials from their capitals, however, must stay home,” AP had reported in January 2009 when Obama’s inauguration as America’s first non-white President was seen as a landmark event.
“These invitations are only for the chiefs of diplomatic missions and their spouses and are not transferable,” secretary of state Condoleezza Rice wrote in a diplomatic note sent to the embassies on January 6 that year, the report further said.
It added that an earlier note, sent by her to the embassies on November 24, said the exclusion of foreign leaders and top government officials was customary for US presidential inaugurations. “As in the past, foreign delegations will not be invited to Washington for this occasion,” the report quoted Rice as stating.