The invitation also came as the Biden administration quietly demanded that India investigate a plot led by an Indian government employee to assassinate a Sikh separatist in the United States. News of the foiled plot only became public last month.
The White House insists that Biden’s failure to attend the Jan. 26 event had nothing to do with the ongoing murder plot investigation. Last month, the Justice Department unsealed an indictment alleging that the Indian government employee ordered the killing of a U.S. citizen and that an accomplice planned to kill “numerous targets,” including a Sikh leader who was fatally shot in Canada in June.
When the Biden administration learned of the foiled plot in late July, it pressed the issue in several meetings, The Washington Post reported last month. Sullivan raised the issue with his counterpart, Ajit Doval, in early August. Within a week, Biden sent his CIA director, Bill Burns, to New Delhi to demand that the government investigate and hold those responsible accountable. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Sullivan reiterated the message with Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar in September in Washington. Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, visited India in October to follow up.
Biden himself spoke about it with Modi during a G20 bilateral meeting, emphasizing that the potential fallout for the relationship “were similar threats that would persist,” a senior administration official said, speaking undercover of anonymity under the ground rules established by the White House. , told the Post.
At the same time, the administration is sending reassuring signals that relations with India remain strong. Earlier this month, Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer led a US delegation to New Delhi to advance a technology partnership between the two countries. He acknowledged India’s creation of a commission of inquiry into the assassination plot and re-emphasized the importance of holding those responsible to account, the White House said. The two governments can “overcome” their differences “constructively without derailing” their cooperation, Finer told a technology summit there.
The Republic Day invitation is intended as a diplomatic gesture to highlight an important relationship on a day that celebrates the adoption of India’s democratic constitution. President Barack Obama in 2015 became the first US president to attend, following a visit by Modi to the US amid warming bilateral relations.
Sullivan, in a statement, said Washington had informed New Delhi that Biden would not be able to visit India. He said Biden and Modi have “affirmed a vision” of the two countries as “among the world’s closest partners” and that their partnership in emerging technologies, space and defense will continue. Biden hosted Modi for a state visit in June.
“The President remains personally committed to advancing this partnership, which he has often described as the most important partnership for the United States this century,” Sullivan said.
New Delhi had also hoped to hold a meeting of leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, made up of the United States, Japan, India and Australia, at the time of Biden’s visit, but others Leaders also had scheduling difficulties.
Indian government officials told reporters they would try to hold the Quad Summit later in 2024. “We are seeking revised dates as the dates currently under consideration are not suitable for all Quad partners,” they said. officials, according to Indian media.
Biden is not the only leader with scheduling conflicts. In 2019, President Donald Trump was invited but “declined because of the State of the Union,” Walter Ladwig, an associate professor of international relations at Kings College London, said in an interview. Boris Johnson was invited in 2021 but could not come, he added.
Ladwig says he doesn’t see Biden’s absence from Republic Day as a signal of discontent over the assassination plot allegations. “President Biden was aware of this and went to the G20 and did everything possible to ensure that it was a success for India,” he said. “It would be weird to go to all this effort and deliberately snub this honor.”
