New Delhi: Like the previous year, the Republic Day event this year will have no foreign dignitary as chief guest due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis across the world.
Five Central Asian leaders were invited as the chief guest for the Republic Day parade on January 26, though no public announcements were made by either side.
In the wake of the surge in Covid infections driven by the Omicron variant of coronavirus in the third phase of the pandemic, New Delhi will not be hosting the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
Last year, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had accepted the invitation to participate in the Republic Day celebrations but cancelled at the last minute after the world took the worst hit of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
