India's Modi is guest of honor at Paris Bastille Day parade as Macron rebuffs human rights critics
France is staging a seduction campaign for visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, guest of honor at the annual Bastille Day parade Friday, as it looks to further strengthen cooperation on an array of topics ranging from climate to military sales and the strategic Indo-Pacific region
PARIS (AP) — France is staging a seduction campaign for visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, guest of honor at Friday's annual Bastille Day parade, with the French president calling India a “key” player “in our future.”
France is looking to further strengthen cooperation on an array of topics ranging from climate to military sales and the strategic Indo-Pacific region. But human rights, seen as an increasingly pressing subject for Modi’s India, was missing from the vast agenda.
President Emmanuel Macron praised India in a speech Thursday evening before French defense officials as a “key partner.”
"It is a giant in the history of the world that will have a determining role in our future," Macron said, ahead of a dinner with Modi at the Elysee Palace. India “is also a strategic partner and friend.”
