India’s Modi is guest of honor at Paris Bastille Day parade as Macron rebuffs human rights critics

PARIS — France is staging a seduction campaign for visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, guest of honor at Friday’s annual Bastille Day parade, with the French president calling India a “key” player “in our future.” France is looking to further strengthen cooperation on an array of topics ranging from climate to military sales and the strategic Indo-Pacific region. President Emmanuel Macron praised India in a speech Thursday evening before French defense officials as a “key partner.” “It is a giant in the history of the world that will have a determining role in our future,” Macron said, ahead of a dinner with Modi at the Elysee Palace. India “is also a strategic partner and friend.” Macron, with Modi at his side, will preside over Friday’s grandiose annual military parade to mark France’s national day. Ten personalities, including noted economist Thomas Piketty and former French ambassador to Denmark France Zimeray, implored Macron in a commentary Thursday in the newspaper Le Monde to “encourage Prime Minister Modi to end repression of the civil society, assure freedom of major media and protect religious liberty.” Modi, who governs the world’s largest population, rarely talks to the press at home or abroad.