The list of chief guests is also reflective of the country’s diplomatic relations over the years. India last extended an invitation to a Pakistani delegate in 1965, before the first of three wars with the country. Marshal Ye Jianying, a Chinese Communist party veteran, was the chief guest in 1958, four years before India and China went to war over a border dispute. If Boris Johnson had attended in 2021, he would have been the sixth UK leader to do so.
