Washington:
US President Barack Obama will travel to India in January for celebrations marking the country’s Republic Day.
The White House announced the trip shortly after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to invite Obama to be the chief guest at the events in New Delhi.
“This Republic Day, we hope to have a friend over ... invited President Obama to be the 1st US President to grace the occasion as Chief Guest,” Modi tweeted.
The White House says Obama is the first US president to attend Republic Day, which commemorates the adoption of India’s constitution.
Obama hosted Modi at the White House in September, nearly a decade after Washington rejected his visa request to visit the US. That decision came three years after religious riots killed more than 1,000 Muslims in the state of Gujarat, where Modi was the top elected official.
This will be Obama’s second trip to India as president. His first visit came in 2010.
Modi met with Obama in September at the White House for talks on two consecutive days.
The prime minister travelled to Washington after addressing the United Nations in New York and starring in what was dubbed as “a rock star reception” at the Madison Square Garden venue in New York.
While the meetings at the White House did not yield big-ticket announcements, the leaders pledged to work closely together on security issues and to boost economic ties.
Modi’s warm reception came after he was denied a visa by the US in 2005 on account of alleged human rights violations in the 2002 riots which took place during his first term as Chief Minister of Gujarat.
Earlier this month, Modi met with President Obama at an East Asia summit in Myanmar and a deal was struck there to allow a WTO trade deal that India had stalled over concerns that its food subsidies to the poor could face legal challenges. The President had praised Mr Modi as “a man of action”.
