Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, attended India’s spectacular annual military parade on Thursday as the guest of honor. The purpose of his state visit was to strengthen France’s strategic alliance with the fifth-largest economy in the world.
A highly orchestrated show, the yearly Republic Day celebration in the center of New Delhi includes mounted camel units, motorbike acrobatics, tank columns, and fighter jet fly-pasts.
This year, it falls during a two-day official visit that highlights the strengthening ties between France and India following Macron’s hosting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Bastille Day festivities in Paris the previous year.
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”.
Additionally, France wants to expand its military agreements with India, which already has multibillion-dollar commitments to purchase French-made Scorpene-class submarines and Rafale fighter jets.
In response, India has been seeking to modernize its armed forces and has asked France for assistance in developing its own defense sector, which has allowed it to expand its arms purchases outside of Russia, its main supplier.
“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.
However, he also said that there had been no progress on a long-standing cooperation agreement on civil nuclear energy production in India, nor had there been any agreement reached on the Indian navy’s acquisition of additional Rafale jets.
In honor of the 1950 adoption of India’s constitution, a detachment of French soldiers, including a marching band from the Foreign Legion, participated in the procession.
Under Modi’s direction, Indian troops had marched down the Champs-Elysees during the Bastille Day procession the previous year.
