United States President Donald Trump has been invited to be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day parade in 2019, PTI reported quoting unidentified officials. The report added that the United States has not yet responded to India’s invite, though “the initial indication has been positive”.

In June 2017, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bilateral talks with Trump in Washington, the US president had said he would visit India. If Trump attends the event, he will be the second US president to do so. In 2015, former President Barack Obama had attended the Republic Day parade. Former President Bill Clinton was invited in 1994, but did not attend.

On Friday, India confirmed that its first ‘2+2’ dialogue with the US will be held in September. The two countries’ foreign and defence ministers are scheduled to have talks during the summit.

There has been some strain on Indo-US ties recently. The US has pushed for countries to stop importing oil from Iran, while India has not agreed to it yet. India is also set for a missile deal with Russia though the US has imposed sanctions on Moscow. The ‘2+2’ talks were postponed to September after initially being scheduled for July.