Roadshow with Modi on cards but defence deals unlikely during Macron’s R-Day visit

This will be sixth time a French leader will attend Republic Day Parade as chief guest. Macron ‘promptly’ accepted New Delhi’s invitation this year, it is learnt.

File photo of French President Emmanuel Macron (L) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) at Elysee Palace, Paris | ANI

New Delhi: French President Emmanuel Macron, the chief guest at the 75th Republic Day Parade on 26 January, will be accorded the full pomp and show of a two-day state visit, including a potential roadshow in Jaipur alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ThePrint has learnt.

Macron’s presence on Republic Day is being viewed as a reciprocal gesture after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to France last July to attend the Bastille Day Parade as ‘guest of honour’.

This will be the sixth time a French leader will attend India’s Republic Day Parade as chief guest. Earlier this month, Emmanuel Bonne, diplomatic advisor to Macron, visited India to iron out details of the upcoming state visit and also hold talks on military and nuclear cooperation with top Indian officials including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was the chief guest for the Republic Day Parade last year.

Macron “promptly” accepted New Delhi’s invitation this year, ThePrint has learnt, although India initially reached out to US President Joe Biden who later declined. The flutter last year about an invitation to Macron was also shadowed by reports that over 300 Indians aboard a plane were detained in Paris on human trafficking concerns. The flight was eventually re-routed back to India and two of its passengers arrested by French authorities.

France is one of India’s key strategic partners for defence and security. The two countries established a strategic partnership in 1998 and have often had a shared common vision for strategic autonomy. Defence procurements aside, the two nations also have a total goods bilateral trade of $13.4 billion.

The India-France Indo-Pacific Roadmap released last July charted out the two countries’ vision for partnership in a region fraught with increasing US-China rivalry and is expected to be a key topic of bilateral talks between PM Modi and President Macron during the upcoming state visit. A defence industrial roadmap, a draft for which New Delhi reportedly shared with Paris last month, will also likely figure in the talks.

Developments in West Asia and threats to navigation in the Red Sea are also likely to be discussed, as well as the possibility of a post-study work visa for Indians in France or a potential “Young Professionals Visa” like the one currently in place between India and the UK.

Finalisation of big defence deals ‘unlikely’

ThePrint earlier reported that a joint statement is likely to follow the bilateral talks, but the signing of major defence contracts is unlikely. 

That said, sources familiar with the matter told ThePrint that discussions on the procurement of 26 Rafale Marine fighter jets for the Indian Navy, three Scorpene submarines and a deal for the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project (JNPP) in Maharashtra, are progressing “positively”. 

Last year, the Republic Day Parade air show saw the participation of Russia’s Sukhoi 30 and Rafale and the French aircraft may make an appearance in this year’s event too.

President Macron will be accompanied by a high-level delegation of ministers, CEOs and business leaders on his state visit.