Narendra Modi lands in France for Bastille Day

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the guest of honor at the parade for France’s most important anniversary, Bastille Day, which falls this Friday, July 14, a date that also marks the 25th anniversary of the strategic partnership France -India, as indicated by the Elíseo Palace in an official statement.

Macron, who has referred to Modi as “his friend” on numerous occasions, will begin hosting the traditional Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Elysees on July 14. Afterwards, both leaders will have a “special dinner” at the historic Louvre Museum.

At the same time, the Indian Ministry of Defense announced on Thursday the approval of the purchase of 26 French-made fighter jets and 3 submarines. The acquisition of these military vehicles would be around 9,750 million dollars, according to sources close to the negotiation cited by Reuters.

Macron’s honorary invitation to Modi contrasts with the different positions of both countries regarding the war in Ukraine. While Paris condemns the Russian attack on Ukrainian territory and is a participant in the European sanctions packages against the Kremlin, New Delhi has maintained a “neutral” discourse on the conflict and remains Moscow’s main trading partner in the field of arms.

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A friendship with shades

At the last United Nations General Assembly, Macron criticized world leaders who had not joined in condemning Russia for its armed incursion into Ukraine, stressing that it is not a question of “choosing a side between West or East, North or South”, but it is a matter of “responsibility”.

“Those who are silent today are serving – against their will or secretly with some complicity – the cause of a new imperialism”, the French president sentenced. Modi is among the leaders who have not condemned the Russian military invasion, refusing to do so up to five times in UN forums.

However, Macron not only did not name the head of the Indian government in his criticism, but congratulated the New Delhi government for its role in moderating talks with Russia, noting the talk between Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. in Uzbekistan, where the Indian premier reportedly told the Kremlin chief that “the present era is not the time for war.”

Paris-New Delhi, a “strategic” connection

India and France have close relations dating back to the Cold War years. Both nations can be considered middle powers within the international concert and are promoters of multilateralism in their international relations.

India was one of the founding States of the Non-Aligned Movement, a block born in 1961 that housed those countries that did not want to have the foreign influence of either of the two superpowers that competed on the world stage. A movement in which China participated for a while and which caught the attention of France, after the estrangement it had with the United Kingdom in terms of foreign policy.

Paris, especially under the Macron government, has tried to distance itself from the American shadow, denying that it is a “vassal” country of Washington. That is why it has sought to expand its ties with other nations, with India being one of its closest ‘alternative’ allies.

In addition to the above, for India, France is the second country on its list of arms sellers, only below Moscow. A commercial relationship that benefits both New Delhi, in its objective of strengthening its military reserves and consecrating its position as a rising power, and Paris, in its commitment to reactivate its manufacturing industry in military infrastructure.

Finally, some analysts perceive the close ties between the two nations as an attempt by France to find an alternative option to the supply of Chinese goods, added to the strengthening of the Indian economy so that it can counteract the influence of Beijing in the region.

However, Christophe Jaffrelot, a French political analyst, mentions that the West’s bet on India’s growth may be counterproductive, since “India is afraid of China”, and even if it has comparable growth, it would not be in its national interest. challenging the Asian giant.

“Both the Americans and the French are betting on India, hoping that it will act as a counterweight to China. However, nothing is less true (…) In a position of weakness on several levels, India fears China, to the point of not being willing to oppose it,” said the researcher of the CERI-SciencesPo and CNRS to France 24.

Modi’s honorary invitation criticized for his dark human rights record

The privilege of Modi being the guest of honor on Bastille Day has raised questions in France, particularly because of his Hindu nationalist administration’s record of human rights abuses. In an opinion article in the French newspaper ‘Liberation’ Green Party leaders and officials from the left-wing Nupes alliance criticized Macron’s decision.

While acknowledging the importance of geostrategic ties and bilateral relations, the column’s signatories noted that it would take someone “totally ignorant of the subcontinent’s current internal political context, or completely cynical to make Mr. Modi the guest of honor.” of the French Republic on its most symbolic day of the year”.

The column recalls that the BJP, a party “which claims to be the most virulent Hindu nationalist, clearly on the extreme right of the Indian political spectrum”, was the political wing of the “RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), an ultranationalist paramilitary group founded in 1925 on the model of the Nazi party in Germany”. “Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin in 1948, Nathuram Godse, came from the ranks of the RSS,” the French politicians noted.

Describing Macron’s invitation as “cynical”, the column noted that “Mahatma Gandhi’s country and our ‘homeland of human rights’ deserve much better.”

With Reuters and France 24 in English