British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be the Chief Guest for India's Republic Day celebrations in 2021 and British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is on his four-day visit to India, had confirmed the visit on Tuesday. Raab had held a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart Dr. Jaishankar during which they discussed strengthening the India-UK partnership post-COVID-19.

In an official statement, Downing Street, the British Prime Minister's Office said that Boris Johnson will travel to India in January 2021 to strengthen a key strategic relationship that supports jobs and investment across the United Kingdom. Boris Johnson said, "I'm absolutely delighted to be visiting India next year at the start of an exciting year for Global Britain, and look forward to delivering the quantum leap in our bilateral relationship that Prime Minister Modi and I have pledged to achieve". 

"As a key player in the Indo-Pacific region, India is an increasingly indispensable partner for the United Kingdom as we work to boost jobs and growth, confront shared threats to our security and protect our planet", Boris Johnson added. The Downing street further stated that the Prime Minister will use his visit to India to boost our cooperation in areas that matter to the UK and that will be priorities for our international engagement throughout 2021- from trade and investment to defence, and security, and health and climate change". 

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is on his four-day tour to India and on Tuesday, he said that the British Prime Minister has accepted India's very generous invitation to be the Republic Day Chief Guest at next month's celebrations in Delhi and Raab had called the invitation as a great honor. According to reports, this will be Boris Johnson's first major bilateral visit, since he took office as the British Prime Minister last year. 

In exchange, Boris Johnson has invited his Indian counterpart to join the G7 summit next year in Britain. Raab said India would be one of the three guest countries. In his statement, Raad said, "I'm pleased that PM Boris Johnson has invited PM Modi to join the UK-hosted G7 summit next year. The British PM has also accepted the very generous invitation to attend India's Republic Day celebrations in January, which is a great honor". 

The Group of Seven (G7) is an intergovernmental organization consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar had hosted Dominic Raab and the former said, "The UK Foreign Secretary comes at a very important time because we are looking at a post-COVID world and also looking at a post-Brexit world from the perspective of the UK. This is the right time for us to hold discussions". Jaishankar further stated that Boris Johnson's presence at the republic day celebrations would be in a way symbolic of a new era, a new phase of India-UK ties. 

Boris Johnson will be the first British Prime Minister to attend the Republic Day parade as the Guest of Honor in 27 years and he is the second one since Indian independence to attend the Republic Day parade after former British Prime Minister John Major in 1993. According to reports, the members of the royal family had attended the Republic Day celebrations as the Guest of Honor in the past. Queen Elizabeth II had attended the parade in 1961 and Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip in 1959. 

Earlier this year, Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro had attended the Republic Day celebrations as the Guest of Honor. It must be noted that the 56-year-old British Prime Minister had contracted the coronavirus in March and later he had recovered. He was one of the initial world leaders who tested positive for the COVID-19 viral infection.