French President Francois Hollande on Friday accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to be the chief guest at India’s 67th Republic Day Parade on January 26 next year.
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Paris will officially announce the visit later when Hollande receives the formal invitation from his counterpart President Pranab Mukherjee, sources said on Saturday. The reports come during French foreign minister Laurent Fabius’s current visit to New Delhi. The French President, who took the office in 2012, had visited New Delhi in February 2013.
French President Francois Hollande will be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations next year. Modi had asked France to supply 36 Rafale fighter jets in fly-way condition for the Indian Air Force.
India-France Joint Working Group on counter-terrorism met in June 2014 and both sides are now preparing for the next meeting.
Hollande’s visit to India’s Republic Day parade after the deadly attack in Paris last week that left at least 130 people dead and several others injured, will be seen as a gesture of solidarity.
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Hollande had declared a state of emergency, ordering police and troops into the streets, and set three days of official mourning as a stunned nation sought to comprehend the simultaneous assault on restaurants, a concert hall and the national soccer stadium on a busy Friday evening.
