PM Modi to visit France on Bastille Day

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave New Delhi for Paris early on Thursday on an official visit to France on July 13-14, when he will be the guest of honour at the Bastille Day parade on Friday. On the way back from France, he will visit the United Arab Emirates on Saturday.

A tri-services Indian armed forces contingent will take part in the Bastille Day parade. India is reportedly expected to place orders for the acquisition of 26 Rafale fighters for the Indian Navy, apart from orders for the construction of three more Scorpene submarines in India. The visit will strengthen strategic ties between the two nations and increase security cooperation as well as in space, civil nuclear energy, counter-terror, cyber-security, Climate change and renewable energy.

Asked about recent riots by people of North African origin that shook France in the past few weeks and led to large-scale violence and destruction, and whether it might have the potential of affecting the visit’s schedule, foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said at a special MEA media briefing that the riots were an internal matter of France and New Delhi never had any doubts about the visit going ahead.

French President Emmanuel Macron will hold formal talks with the Prime Minister and host a state banquet as well as a private dinner in honour of the PM on Friday. Modi will also meet the French PM and the presidents of the Senate and National Assembly of France. He will separately interact with the Indian diaspora in France, CEOs of Indian and French companies, and prominent French personalities. The state banquet will be hosted at the iconic Louvre in Paris.

Asked about possible defence pacts, the foreign secretary spoke about India’s vision and objectives of co-production and co-development of defence platforms. Asked about cooperation on civil nuclear energy, he said both sides were “closely talking on making progress” on this issue.

On Friday morning, Modi will be the guest of honour at the Bastille Day parade to commemorate the storming of the Bastille prison during the French Revolution in 1789. He will later hold delegation-level talks with the French President, after which the two sides are expected to announce pacts in various spheres.  

On the UAE leg of the visit, the MEA said: “The Prime Minister will thereafter visit Abu Dhabi on July 15. He will hold talks with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi.”