India shows off military might, culture in parade

The two sides also signed an inter-governmental agreement for France to sell 36 French-built Rafale fighter planes to India in a deal estimated to be worth US$9 billion (S$13 billion). “It was wonderful to be here and it felt lovely to see India celebrate her Republic Day and France joining in here as represented by our President”, a visiting French official said.

Both leaders called for decisive action against the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Haqqani Network as well as groups such as Al Qaeda.

“We are very happy that we have formed an agreement for purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft with France”, PM said, adding that there are “some financial issues” that shall be sorted very soon.

Yesterday, three MoUs were signed under the “Smart city” theme for city-specific urban development between French Development Agency (AFD) with the state governments for the cities of Chandigarh, Nagpur and Puducherry. The announcement for the Rs 60,000-crore deal was made by Modi last April during his visit to France but it is yet to be finalized.

A joint statement said the leaders welcomed the conclusion of an intergovernmental agreement on the purchase, but that “some financial issues” remained outstanding.

It’s fitting that with French President François Hollande appearing at the Republic Day parade yesterday, France is now the country whose head of state has been chief guest on this occasion the highest number of times.

While the Rafale aircraft deal has overshadowed much of the discussion on French ties in the past few days, the fact is that France began to supply India aircraft (‘Toofani’, or Dassault Ouragan fighters) as early as in 1953, and has been a consistent supplier since. “They are provoking us in the worst possible manner, but this can only make us more determined, including myself”, he said.

After viewing the parade, Hollande was expected to attend a reception at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, India’s sprawling presidential palace.

Hollande said an agreement for France’s Areva to build six nuclear reactors in India should be concluded within a year.

The two leaders “have set some timelines to move on the various nuclear understandings that we have”, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said at a media briefing on Monday.

A senior French official told reporters on Sunday the two sides were still haggling over the price, which experts say could reach around five billion euros (5.6 billion).