External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will represent Prime Minister Narendra Modi as his Special Envoy at the inaugural function of President Donald Trump in Washington DC today. The External Affairs Minister is carrying a letter from the Prime Minister for President Trump, sources said.

They said that the general practice has been to send Special Envoys of the Prime Minister to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Heads of State and Government. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh attended the swearing-in ceremony of the President of Nigeria in May 2023 and the then Minister of Earth Sciences Kiren Rijiju attended the swearing-in ceremony of the President of Maldives in November 2023.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari attended the swearing-in ceremony of the new President of Iran in July 2024. Minister of State for External Minister Pabitra Margherita attended the swearing in ceremony of the President of Indonesia and of the President of Mexico in October last year.
The then Minister for External Affairs Raj Kumar Ranjan Singh had attended the swearing in ceremony of the President of the Phillippines in June 2022.

Meanwhile, people have started to gather outside the US Capitol Rotunda building, where US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration is scheduled to be held today. Republican leader Donald Trump will take oath as the 47th US President. It will be his second term in office. The ceremonial event is set to take place on Monday, approximately two weeks after Trump’s electoral college win was certified by the US Congress.

The stage is set for a grand ceremony leading up to US President-elect Donald Trump’s swearing-in on Monday. The events are set to begin with Trump’s departure to St John’s Church and offering of service. He will then go to the Blair House, The President’s Guest House. At North Portico, the US President Joe Biden and the First Lady Jill Biden will first welcome Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff and then President-Elect Donald Trump and his wife Melania.

Vice President-Elect JD Vance will take his oath to office, followed by Trump. The grand swearing-in will be followed by Trump’s remarks. A formal farewell ceremony of Biden and Harris is set to take place, and then Trump and Vance will have the signing room ceremony. The signing ceremony is one of the first official actions taken by the new President of the United States. This occurs in the President’s Room just off the Senate Chamber in the US Capitol.

After the departure of the former President and First Lady, the new President gathers there with aides and Members of Congress to sign nominations and sometimes memorandums, proclamations, or executive orders. This tradition began in 1981, with former US President Ronald Reagan.

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