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French President Emmanuel Macron will be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations of India on 26 January, it was officially announced here on Friday.
“At the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Emmanuel Macron, President of France, will be visiting India as the chief guest for the 75th Republic Day celebrations,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.
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This will be the sixth time when a French leader will be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day parade, reflecting the growing friendship between the two countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself was the Guest of Honour at the Bastille Day Parade in Paris earlier this year.
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Earlier, the US president was extended an invite for the Republic Day celebrations but Washington recently conveyed to New Delhi the inability of the American leader to come without specifying any reason. This led to media speculation that it could be a fallout of the recent allegation made by the US about the involvement of Indian nationals in a plot to assassinate ‘Khalistan’ leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. As a consequence of the US President’s inability to travel to New Delhi, the planned Quad summit in the Indian capital has also been postponed.
2023 also marks 25 years of the India-France strategic partnership. After PM Modi’s visit to France earlier this year, a roadmap for the next 25 years was released with the focus on a number of initiatives, including exploring projects to develop the Indian submarine fleet, French support to build “Shakti Engine” and working together in the Indo Pacific.
Prior to Mr Macron, former French prime minister Jacques Chirac was the chief guest at the Republic Day in 1976 and 1998, and former Presidents Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Francois Hollande in the years 1980, 2008 and 2016 respectively.
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