NEW DELHI: President Emmanuel Macron was guest of honour Thursday for India's pomp-filled annual military parade, in a state visit aimed at bolstering France's strategic ties with the world's fifth-largest economy. The annual Republic Day event in the heart of New Delhi is a highly choreographed spectacle featuring tank columns, fighter jet fly-pasts, acrobatic motorbike stunts and mounted camel units.
This year it coincides with a two-day diplomatic tour that reflects a growing partnership between India and France, after Macron hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi at last year's Bastille Day celebrations in Paris. Macron has pushed for greater French involvement in the Asia-Pacific at a time when Washington and its Western allies are courting India as a military and economic counterweight to China.
Before his arrival in India, Macron's office said India was "a key partner in contributing to international peace and security". France also hopes to build on its military contracts with India, which is already a buyer of French-made Rafale fighter jets and Scorpene-class submarines in multibillion-dollar deals. India in turn has been working to modernise its armed forces and has solicited French help to grow its indigenous defence industry, allowing it to diversify arms purchases beyond its traditional supplier Russia.
"The idea is to build defence supply chains that can meet India and France's defence needs," New Delhi's top foreign ministry bureaucrat Vinay Kwatra told reporters. Kwatra said both countries were exploring joint satellite launches. But he also indicated that no deal had been reached on additional Rafale jet purchases by the Indian navy, nor had there been movement on a long-standing cooperation agreement on civil nuclear energy production in India. A contingent of French soldiers including a Foreign Legion marching band joined the parade, which marks the adoption of India's constitution in 1950. Indian troops had marched down the Champs-Elysees under Modi's watch during last year's Bastille Day parade.
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