Modi in France: 'Paris rolling out the red carpet' to secure arms deals
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00:00 Andra Modi is set to arrive in Paris this Thursday.
00:02 His plane just landing.
00:04 The Indian prime minister is, of course, the guest of honor for this year's Bastille Day
00:09 military parade.
00:10 Now his presence in that traditional event then symbolizes the central element of bilateral
00:15 relations between France and India, and that is military cooperation.
00:20 Indian pilots will be flying French-made fighter jets at the parade, which is, of course, a
00:24 reminder that New Delhi is one of the biggest buyers of French weapons.
00:28 The two leaders are also expected to discuss some major new defense deals.
00:32 For more on this as we wait to see pictures of Narendra Modi getting out of his plane,
00:37 we will cross now to our international affairs editor, Philip Turrell.
00:40 Hi there, Philip.
00:41 So what are these two leaders hoping to get out of this visit?
00:44 Right.
00:45 Well, this is a key visit by Narendra Modi to take part, as you were saying, in the Bastille
00:50 Day celebrations, which will be held tomorrow on July the 14th, which is the traditional
00:55 Bastille Day.
00:56 There was a military parade in the morning, and quite often heads of state from other
01:01 nations are invited to take part in this parade.
01:04 Given the red carpet treatment, they will sit at the bottom of the Champs-Élysées
01:08 and watch all of these personnel, fighter planes, tanks, weapons be paraded in front
01:16 of the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
01:19 So that is what he will be doing tomorrow.
01:22 He's also going to have a lunch at the Louvre Museum while he's in Paris to be able to admire
01:27 the artifacts there.
01:28 So France is really running out of the red carpet to try to make a good impression on
01:32 the Indian prime minister.
01:34 This is not the first time, of course, he's been to France.
01:36 It's the fourth visit that he's made since Emmanuel Macron was elected back in 2017.
01:42 And all of this to shore up a special strategic partnership between France and India that
01:48 dates back to 1998.
01:50 So 25 years of that strategic partnership.
01:53 That is why we're going to see probably the announcement of signings of more armaments
01:58 being sold to India, India being one of the key customers from the French armaments industry.
02:05 So that is basically what I think the two men are trying to accomplish, a warming of
02:10 relationships.
02:11 The relationship is always pretty good between the two nations.
02:14 And also the shoring up of several military deals between France and India while Narendra
02:20 Modi is in the country for this two day visit.
02:24 But that said, this visit is also causing some concern on the part of human rights groups
02:31 who've accused India of trampling on democracy, of imprisoning anybody who is an opposition
02:38 figure against the far right nationalist BJP party of Narendra Modi.
02:44 And many saying, well, France needs to address that issue while the Indian premier is in
02:50 Paris.
02:51 But it looks pretty unsure that Emmanuel Macron is going to do that during the next couple
02:55 of days.
02:56 I think more stress is going to be put on signing those deals.
02:59 Just to give you one figure, Erin, that is that over the past year, a massive 47% of
03:07 all of France's aeronautics industry has been shipped to India.
03:11 So a very important customer at a time when India is needing to expand itself, to modernize
03:19 the country, is looking to France to help it do that.
03:23 So that's what the two leaders are prioritizing, clearly, the military ties, Philip.
03:28 But Modi's visit in France is controversial for other reasons.
03:31 That's of course Modi's human rights record, the increasingly kind of Hindu nationalist
03:36 agenda of his government.
03:38 So do you think that it's realistic to expect that Macron could condition these deals on
03:45 Modi changing the course of that?
03:46 No, I actually don't think so.
03:48 And that is going to, I think, annoy some of France's European neighbors, notably Germany,
03:55 for example, the United Kingdom, the United States.
03:58 They've all criticized what has been going on in India since Narendra Modi was elected
04:04 prime minister back in 2014, with, as I was saying, opposition candidates either being
04:10 jailed or forced into trying to go underground because they can't say anything against the
04:18 government.
04:19 And the government accused of buying out politicians of the opposition, trampling on the rights
04:24 of the press.
04:25 161 out of 180 is the rating that India has given on the press freedom listing by a report
04:34 that is without borders.
04:35 So a lot of concern about the fact that this is not the mother of democracies.
04:39 This is an autocracy, an electoral autocracy in India.
04:44 That's what some are now calling it.
04:46 And that's why there's pressure on Emmanuel Macron to say something to the Indian premier
04:50 about that.
04:51 But I think the fact that Emmanuel Macron has kept away from trying to put pressure
04:55 on the Indian premier has somewhat helped in relations between the two countries, because
05:01 India appreciates the fact that France is not getting involved in what it sees as a
05:05 purely domestic matter.
05:08 So I think pretty unlikely that over the next couple of days where commercial interests
05:13 are at heart that, unfortunately, anything to do with human rights and more personal
05:19 interests will have to take second seat.