India has changed a lot in the last 20 years, and yet one factor in its long journey has remained almost constant: Its tradition of following a non-aligned foreign policy. The same has been spelled prominently again through the extension of invitation to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as chief guest for Republic Day.

Earlier, similar invitations were sent to the UAE (Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in 2017), the ASEAN leaders (in 2018), South Africa (Cyril Ramaphosa in 2019), and Brazil (Jair Bolsonaro in 2020) by Narendra Modi government. On the back of it, this year’s invitation to President Sisi signifies a not-so-hidden agenda of forming an alliance of countries not willing to follow the diktats of either of the new poles of the New Cold War, the US-West in one side and Russia-China on the other. This is continuation of India’s role in Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of the old Cold War days.

Author-Vibhuti Pathak