Indian soldiers are in France ahead of the Bastille Day celebrations as India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares to preside over the national celebration in Paris and open a new chapter in bilateral ties.
Some two-hundred and sixty-nine soldiers from India’s army, air force and the navy have been practising for almost a week in Paris ahead of Friday’s event when they will march from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde.
The Indian Air Force has arrived in the French capital with four Rafale aircraft, which will also take part in the Bastille Day flyover the Champs Elysées in Paris this Friday.
The fighter jets are part of 36 Rafales India has bought from France for eight billion Euros to revamp its Soviet-era air force.
Paris is also the front-runner in a race to sell 26 of the planes for India’s indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.
#WATCH | Indian Army contingent in Paris preparing for the Bastille Day Parade 2023 pic.twitter.com/p8h3oCYgyR
— The Times Of India (@timesofindia) July 10, 2023
Military partnership
Modi will be the guest of honour to mark the 25th anniversary of strategic partnership this year between New Delhi and Paris, with France being the second largest arms supplier to India after Russia.
Last year, France edged past the United States in arms supplies to India, accounting for a 29 percent slice of its hardware imports, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think tank.
Ahead of Modi’s two-day trip, Arun Singh, a former Indian ambassador to France, said: “We mark this as a rare honour and I think it is a reflection of the fact that there is a high level of trust and confidence in the relationship and they want to signal that."
Although Modi has been personally invited by French President Emmanuel Macron, former prime minister Manmohan Singh was the first Indian leader to attend the French national celebrations as chief guest back in 2009.
India to buy 26 Rafales, 3 Scorpene submarines from France, deals likely to be announced during PM Modi's visit
— ANI Digital (@ani_digital) July 10, 2023
Read @ANI Story | https://t.co/03wkKF6l8x#Rafale #India #France #PMModi pic.twitter.com/CbAGp2By5Z
Potential deals
France is keen on push forward with a joint venture between French aeronautical firm Safran and India’s state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation to co-produce jet plane engines.
The two allies are reportedly planning to set up French satellite launch facilities in India and hope to speed up negotiations on a French offer to supply six civilian nuclear reactors to India in line with a ground breaking accord signed in 2008.
According to Emmanuel Lenain, France's ambassador to India, Macron is banking on Modi’s two-day trip to clinch an array of deals.
The Emmanuel Macron government gave green signal to Safran to jointly design, develop, test, manufacture and certify an engine that will power India’s AMCA
— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) July 2, 2023
(Shishir Gupta reports)https://t.co/KOQZS32SwW
“There will be a lot of them,” ambassador Lenain predicted, adding, "Each time there is an important meeting at that level, there will be some new momentum for cooperation.”
He notes that French firms keen on doing business in India and are supportive of Modi’s signature 'Make-in-India' drive designed to cut foreign imports.
Trade between the two countries is pegged at €25 billion in 2022 – a figure that had initially been a target to be reached by 2025 – and now attention will focus on boosting French investment in India’s farm, energy, industrial, and software sectors.
Only last month, Airbus announced clinching the biggest-ever aircraft order in the history of commercial aviation to deliver 500 A320 planes to India’s IndiGo airline between 2030 and 2035.
The deal takes to ,1330 the number of Airbus planes Indigo has ordered from the European aerospace giant, headquartered in Toulouse.
