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A banner one might spot in Minsk, Belarus these days reads,

Warm greetings to President of the Republic of India Pranab Mukherjee

My question is more specific than this one and this one. Neither has "President of <country>" and a name following a job title in a single sentence.

Is it necessary to put the definite article between "to" and "President"?

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    In the style I use, I'd choose WARM GREETINGS TO PRANAB MUKHERJEE, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDIA. The apposition sounds far more natural than 'President of the United States of America[,] Barack Obama'. 'President Obama' works as a title + name, but 'President of the United States of America Barack Obama' is very awkward. If it is felt necessary to preserve the original word order, apposition (needing the 'THE' and a comma after 'INDIA') is better.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jun 6, 2015 at 22:14
  • It would probably be slightly better with "THE", but the difference is not great. Note that if you just say "WARM GREETINGS TO PRESIDENT PRANAB MUKHERJEE" you should not add "THE".
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 3:40

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The basic question is whether you are saying "Greetings to [honorific][human's name]" or "Greetings to [official title], [human's name]".

You would say "Greetings to the President of the Republic of India", but "Greetings to Pranab Mukherjee".

Combine them one way and you get "Greetings to the President of the Republic of India, Pranab Mukherjee". Combine them the other way and you get "Greetings to President of the Republic of India Pranab Mukherjee", where "President of the Republic of India" is an honorific (just like "Mr." or "General" or whatever).

The banner is correct as it appears, so long as it contains no comma. It might read a hair better the other way (with comma), but protocol may dictate against that.

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I think it would have been better if they had printed either of the following.

  • Warm greetings to the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee
  • Warm greetings to the President of the Republic of India, Pranab Mukherjee

The first one sounds good because there is no repetition of "the". The second one is correct, but it doesn't sound so good as the first one.

You need to use "the" to refer to unique things (though people tend to omit it often).

Examples

  • The sun rose at 6:17 this morning.
  • You can go anywhere in the world.
  • Clouds drifted across the sky.
  • The president will be speaking on TV tonight.
  • The CEO of Total is coming to our meeting.

— EF.com

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