New Delhi has invited all five Central Asian countries, namely Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, to attend the Republic Day celebrations. Central Asian nations are being invited for the first time as guests and it’s the second time so many countries were invited together after ASEAN countries were invited for Republic Day last year.
Considering that New Delhi shares historical, cultural, and civilizational ties with Central Asia, this outreach is considered important.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited each of the five Central Asian nations in 2015, becoming the first Prime Minister to travel to all five countries since the breakup of the Soviet Union.
India’s choice of guests at the republic day events shows its closeness with the country or a region. Since 2014, PM Modi has invited US President Barack Obama (2015), French President Francois Hollande (2016), UAE’s Md Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (2017), all 10 ASEAN nations (2018), South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa (2019), and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro (2020).
