India invites French President Emmanuel Macron as 2024 Republic Day chief guest
NEW DELHI, DEC 22 : French President Emmanuel Macron is set to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations on January 26 next year, news agency PTI reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the development.
The Indian government had invited US President Joe Biden as the chief guest, but he expressed his inability to visit New Delhi in January.
French President Macron has been invited as the Republic Day chief guest, the people cited above said.
Macron is the sixth French leader who will be the chief guest at the 2024 Republic Day parade. Former French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac graced the event twice in 1976 and 1998. Former presidents Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, attended the celebrations in 1980, 2008, and 2016, respectively.
The development came after PM Modi visited France in July and attended the Bastille Day (French National Day) celebrations in Paris as a guest of honour. The Bastille Day commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison during the French Revolution in 1789.
In September, Macron visited Delhi for the G20 Summit hosted by India and held talks with PM Modi. Following the meeting, PM Modi said he had a “productive lunch meeting” with Macron and said he looked forward to ensuring India-France relations scale new heights of progress.
“A very productive lunch meeting with President @EmmanuelMacron. We discussed a series of topics and look forward to ensuring India-France relations scale new heights of progress,” PM Modi tweeted on September 10.
Earlier this year, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was the chief guest of India’s Republic Day parade.
Every year, India invites foreign leaders to attend its Republic Day celebrations. There were only two instances — in 2021 and 2022 — when no Republic Day chief guest was invited due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
-PTI
