Parade on the Champs-Elysées, head-to-head with the President of the Republic and State dinner at the Louvre Museum: on this national holiday, Friday July 14, Narendra Modi was welcomed with all the honors by Emmanuel Macron. Everything was done to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the strategic partnership between the two countries, with the promise of contracts in the field of defence, following an agreement in principle on the supply of 26 Rafale Marine and three class submarines Scorpene.
The day before, the Head of State had presented the Legion of Honor to his guest, who declared that he saw “a sign of respect for the 1.4 billion Indians”. Both have agreed on a roadmap intended to strengthen ties between their countries by 2047, for the hundred years of independence of the former British colony.
Emmanuel Macron was careful, in the quick statements made by the two leaders before their meeting at the Elysée, to allude to the autocratic drift of the Indian Prime Minister. “India is a democratic and demographic power”he underlined, without mentioning the discrimination of non-Hindu, Muslim but also Christian minorities.
The few journalists present did not have the opportunity to ask any questions, unlike the quick exchange with the press organized at the White House during Modi’s visit to Washington at the end of June. On to the pictures. Nothing should mar the staging of the “historic relationship of trust” between the two countries, in the words of the Head of State.
One of the figures of the “Global South”
On the other hand, Emmanuel Macron insisted on the cooperation between India and France in order to face the “global issues”such as the fight against global warming, and “international crises”starting with the “war of aggression” led by Russia in Ukraine. At his side, the nationalist leader, advocate of “multi-alignment”, made no public comment on the conflict that is shaking the European continent.
Nevertheless, much of their discussion then focused on the war that poisons relations between Westerners and this “Global South”, of which Mr. Modi has become one of the figures, even before welcoming the leaders. of the world’s twenty largest economies in Delhi on 9 and 10 September. Less than two months before the meeting, his visit to Paris comes at the right time for Emmanuel Macron, who is ever more concerned, in the context of the difficult Ukrainian counter-offensive, to one day find a negotiated solution to the conflict.
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