As Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Paris on Friday to attend the Bastille Day parade as the guest of honour, French President Emmanuel Macron will host a banquet in his honour at Musée du Louvre – the iconic 230-year-old museum.
Modi is the second prime minister of India to attend the Bastille Day ceremony as the Guest of Honour – 14 years after his predecessor Manmohan Singh.
Macron is also likely to host a private dinner for Modi. India is set to buy 26 Rafale-Marine combat aircraft for the Indian Navy from the Dassault Aviation of France. The two sides may also ink a deal for manufacturing three additional Scorpene class submarines for the Indian Navy at Mazgaon Dockyards Limited in Mumbai with the transfer of technology from the French Naval Group.
Bastille Day is the national festival of France. It is celebrated on July 14 every year to commemorate the ‘Fête de la Fédération’ that was held on the same day in 1790 on the occasion of the first anniversary of the fall of the infamous medieval prison-fortress — the flashpoint of the 1789 French Revolution.
A tri-service contingent, comprising personnel of the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force, will also join their French counterparts in the parade.
The prime minister will interact with Non-Resident Indians and French citizens with roots in India at La Seine Musicale, a music and performing arts centre located on an island on the Seine River in the western suburbs of Paris.