Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro will be India’s Republic Day chief guest on Jan 26

NEW DELHI, Jan 21, 2020, Hindustan Times. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro will be the chief guest at India’s 71st Republic Day Parade on January 26 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the invitation to the leader last year, Hindustan Times reported.

The invitation to Bolsonaro is part of the Indian government’s outreach to Latin and South America, including the exchange of high-level visits, to boost trade and investments.

The choice of a chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations is influenced by several factors, including strategic relations and commercial interests.

This will be Bolsonaro’s first visit to India since the far-right politician assumed the office of president in January last year.

He will be the third Brazilian president to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations after Fernando Cardoso in 1996 and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2004.

The Brazilian president will be on a state visit to India from January 24 to January 27 with an aim to boost its $7 billion in annual bilateral trade with India to $25 billion in the next few years among other ties

Brazil has backed India’s efforts to strengthen counter-terrorism cooperation under the BRICS framework.

The two countries have worked closely within BRICS for focused consultations on terrorism, and the bloc’s joint working group on counter-terrorism to constitute five working sub-groups on terror financing, use of the internet for terrorism, countering radicalisation, the issue of foreign terrorist fighters and capacity-building.

He will witness the Republic Day parade, to mark the day the Constitution of India came into effect, from the Rajpath to the Red Fort amid an unprecedented security cover as India will put its military might, marching contingents, strategic defence weaponry and colourful tableaux on display.

Captain Tania Sher Gill of the Indian Army will be the parade adjutant at the Republic Day parade after she led all-men contingents at the Cariappa Parade Ground in Delhi Cantonment for the first time in the history of the Army Day.

The Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Apache attack helicopters and Chinook heavy-lift choppers will make their debut at this year’s Republic Day fly-past, which is one of the most popular elements of the annual parade.

The government has selected 22 tableaux—15 states, 1 union territory, and six government departments—from 56 applications from 32 states and UTs and 24, departments this year. Typically, a panel set up by the ministry of defence, which is in charge of the parade, selects around 22 or 23 tableaux.

Apart from traffic restrictions, no flight operations will take place for around one hour and forty-five minutes at the Delhi airport on January 20-24 and 26 – due to the Republic Day celebrations.

According to a notice to airmen (NOTAM) issued by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), “no landing and take-off” would be “permitted” at the Delhi international airport between 10.35am and 12.15pm on January 20-24 and 26.