Egypt President Abdel Fattah el Sisi Invited as Chief Guest for 2023 R-Day Celberations

New Delhi: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in January 2023, said the Ministry of External Affairs in an official statement on Sunday.

In October, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had handed over the formal invitation to the Egyptian President which was sent by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This would be the first time that an Egyptian president would be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations.

“This is the first time that the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt will be the Chief Guest at our Republic Day,” the MEA said in a statement.

Egypt is also one of the nine guest countries to the G20 summit under India's presidency in 2023. India will officially assume the G20 presidency from the current chair Indonesia on December 1. This year India and Egypt are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. Egypt has been invited as a 'Guest Country' during India's Presidency of G-20 in 2022-23.

“India and Egypt enjoy warm and friendly relations based on civilizational and deep-rooted people-to-people ties. Both countries are celebrating the 75th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations this year,” the statement said.

It may be noted here that no foreign dignitary was invited as the chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations in 2021 and 2022 due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, the then British prime minister Boris Johnson was invited as the chief guest but his visit had to be cancelled due to the rising COVID-19 cases in Britain.

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