00:00 the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arriving now to greet the French Prime Minister Elizabeth
00:05 Bourne.
00:12 So this is his first meeting here with the French Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne as
00:18 he gets off the plane. Busy schedule for the Indian Prime Minister, of course when he's
00:23 at the Bastille Day celebrations tomorrow there will be Indian Rafale jets that are
00:30 going to fly over, there will be Indian troops who will be taking part in the parade. So
00:35 he will be taking part in that. That's all tomorrow morning here in Paris. As I was saying
00:39 he will be meeting a little bit later with the French President Emmanuel Macron and with
00:45 business leaders from France. He'll be having a lunch at the Louvre Museum. So there is
00:50 a busy programme for him over the next couple of days. So kicking off right now following
00:55 his arrival here in France just a few minutes ago.
00:57 [Music]
01:04 [Music]
01:32 It's like this is the Indian national anthem that they're listening to now.
01:39 This is the usual ceremony for greeting a world leader when they arrive in France by
01:47 the Republican Guard at the airport and the head of the French Armed Forces also there
01:55 standing next to the Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, the most senior member of the government
02:02 who is appointed by President Macron. Who herself has come under quite a lot of criticism
02:06 just daily over the unrest in France and the way it's been handled. But she is the first
02:12 official member of the French government who is meeting with the Indian Prime Minister
02:17 on his arrival in France for this two day visit.
02:21 [Music]
02:50 [Music]
03:13 That was the French national anthem. Then perhaps just to finish Philip, how significant
03:18 is it then do you think that Narendra Modi is the guest of honour for this military day
03:23 parade tomorrow and the only guest of honour?
03:25 You know sometimes Erin this pays off and it's a huge impetus for foreign leaders to
03:35 be invited to the 14th of July Bastille Day parade. About the same as being invited to
03:40 meet the King of England. Nothing's better when one looks at one's political career than
03:47 to be invited to do that. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes for France it doesn't pay off.
03:51 There have been a couple of notable cases where leaders of foreign countries have been
03:54 invited to France, been able to take part in the Bastille Day parade with the hope that
04:00 France will exert this kind of friendly soft power to bring them in and make them into
04:05 countries that are appreciated. One of them was Syria back in 2000 with the Syrian President.
04:14 That hasn't worked out as everybody knows since then. The second one was the visit to
04:19 France under Nicolas Sarkozy of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who was also invited
04:25 to the Bastille Day parade with the hope that there would be a softening of the tense relations
04:32 with Libya. That obviously didn't work out either and Libyan is not in very good diplomatic
04:38 state right now. So there is a risk to this but I think France sees India as a very stable
04:46 important partner and that is something that they want to show by inviting Narendra Modi
04:52 to take part in the Bastille Day parade tomorrow.
04:55 Philip Turrell, thank you very much for that analysis.
