French consulate in Bengaluru gets threat ahead of President Hollande’s visit

It said that president Hollande, who is a guest at the Republic Day parade in the capital, should not come to India.

Speaking at an annual gathering of about 200 foreign and French ambassadors, Hollande outlined his foreign policy objectives for the year, saying France would not shirk its responsibilities in fighting militancy after two deadly attacks marked his country last year.

India was the world’s 2nd-largest arms importer in 2015, receiving some $5.57 billion in military hardware. We have taken the matter seriously.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup told journalists at his weekly briefing that this would be the fifth time that a serving President of France would be the chief guest at the Republic Day function.

The alliance, an initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was launched jointly with Hollande on November 30 past year during the Paris climate summit.

Indian officials said France and India were working hard on an agreement for another high-speed link in northern India, but would not immediately say which cities might be along the route. “The key question of who will govern Syria should not be avoided”, said Hollande, announcing his upcoming trips to Egypt, Jordan and Oman to promote stability in the region, including the de-escalation of tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia. So, it is good to understand the dynamics, how networking of Al Qaeda or Islamic State is developing or growing. “That is creating a change in the way nuclear negotiations are being conducted”, he said. A number of business-to-business agreements are likely to be signed, sources revealed.

But the reluctance of more SMEs to trade or do business with each other has led to a stagnation in Indo-French trade, which has been hovering around the seven billion euro mark for nearly all of the past decade, despite several ambitious targets set by leaders on various occasions. Chandigarh will be developed into a smart city by partnership of both countries. Significantly, explanation about the fossil discovered by the French archeologists with the collaboration of Indian archeologists will be the crucial event there.

Prime minister and French president will meet in New Delhi on Monday where they will review bilateral cooperation between India and France and will also exchange views on national and worldwide issues. A meeting with Vice President Hamid Ansari and a state banquet at Rashtrapati Bhavan are also on his itinerary. “In all these areas we expect some forward progress during the French President’s visit”.

On the visit of Hollande starting this Sunday, the ambassador said the focus that he foresees is mostly in three domains.