Republic Day 2021: British PM cancels visit to India due to the new COVID strain
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New Delhi, Jan 5: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has cancelled his plan to visit India for the Republic Day Parade on Jan 26, 2021 at the national capital of New Delhi. He has said that considering the prevailing situations in the UK, it is more important for him to stay back in order to focus on the domestic response to the Corona virus.
Reports say that the British PM Boris Johnson has personally informed PM Narendra Modi about the cancellation of the plan and has expressed his regret. The cancellation of the plan to visit India for the Republic Day celebrations was announce a day after imposing the third Lockdown in the UK due the rising cases of Corona virus rooting to the new strain of COVID 19.
India had invited the British PM Boris Johnson to attend the Republic Day Parade as the Chief Guest. In return, as a gesture of acceptance, the UK had also invited India, along with South Korea and Australia to the G7 summit that is to be held in 2021. The news was known during the visit of UK's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to India in Dec 2020. FS Raab had confirmed that the British PM has accepted the invitation to attend the Republic Day parade as the Chief Guest.
During sharing the confirmation of acceptance FS Raab had said, "The UK Prime Minister has accepted the very generous invitation to attend India's Republic Day celebrations (as chief guest) in Jan, which is great honor."