UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson cancels his visit to India for Republic Day

• UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson has cancelled his visit to India.
• Johnson was invited to be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day parade in New Delhi.
• His visit which would have been the first since he took office was already under a lot of speculation due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in the UK.

With the COVID-19 crisis raging across the country, UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson has cancelled his visit to India, citing the need to oversee the response to the pandemic. Johnson was invited to be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day parade in New Delhi.

Johnson on Tuesday spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to express his regret over not being able to visit India as planned for Republic Day on January 26 due to the growing crisis created by the new variant of coronavirus.

“The prime minister spoke to Prime Minister Modi this morning, to express his regret that he will be unable to visit India later this month as planned. In light of the national lockdown announced last night, and the speed at which the new coronavirus variant is spreading, the prime minister said that it was important for him to remain in the UK so he can focus on the domestic response to the virus,” said a Downing street spokesperson.

His visit which would have been the first since he took office was already under a lot of speculation due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in the UK, especially after the emergence of the new COVID-19 mutant strain in the country.

The Prime Minister said that he hopes to be able to visit India in the first half of 2021, and ahead of the UK's G7 Summit that Prime Minister Modi is due to attend as a guest, the spokesperson said.

On Monday, Johnson also announced that the UK will go back into a complete lockdown to curb the rising number of cases.


On December 22, 2020, Indian government had suspended all flights from the United Kingdom after reports that the country has seen a new strain of COVID-19, which has been termed as a "super spreader". However, the flights are set to resume from January 8, 2021.

With inputs from PTI