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Paris prepares for Narayanan's visit

Ranvir Nayar in Paris

Hectic preparations are on in Paris to receive President K R Narayanan who begins a week-long visit to France on April 17. The State visit is being treated as a significant event in Paris since it is the first-ever journey by an Indian President to France, even though French presidents have visited India on four occasions in the last 30 years.

This will be the highest level meeting between the two nations for almost 20 months. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee briefly visited Paris in September 1998 on his way back from the United Nations.

"This visit presents an opportunity for the two sides to discuss the progress of bilateral relations and examine all regional and international issues," India's Ambassador to France Kanwal Sibal told rediff.com

Though the agenda for Narayanan's visit is still being finalised between New Delhi and Paris, French President Jacques Chirac will host a dinner in the President's honour on April 17. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin is likely to host a lunch for his Indian guest the next day. On April 19, the President will leave for Toulouse, the high tech industrial city, about 800 km south of Paris. He will visit the Airbus plant there. This segment of the visit is specially important for the French who like to show off Toulouse as a global centre of excellence in research and development.

The French are banking on making their first Airbus sale to India in 10 years and use every opportunity to bring high level visitors from India to see the impressive Airbus plant.

A team led by the chief protocol officer at the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi will visit France next week to finalise the itinerary for the Presidential visit.

Since Narayanan has shown he is not a rubber stamp President, the French will use the opportunity to ascertain his views on a range of issues. Narayanan, a former member of the Indian Foreign Service, is particularly well informed on international affairs, therefore the two sides are likely to discuss issues of multipolarity, the developments in Europe, including the Balkan crisis, NATO expansion, European Union affairs and Russia. Narayanan is also expected to share his views on Indo-French relations as well as India's relations with China and Pakistan. The President will visit Beijing in May.

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