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President in Paris, crucial meeting with Chirac ahead

Ranvir Nayar in Paris

President K R Narayanan arrived at the Orly military airport, just south of Paris, on Sunday afternoon for a five day state visit to France, the first ever visit by an Indian President to the second largest member of the European Union.

The President was received at the airport by Alain Richards, the French defence minister, and senior officials of the Indian embassy, including the Indian ambassador Kanwal Sibal. The President inspected a combined defence forces guard of honour on arrival, in line with the protocol for the visiting heads of state.

Paris is wearing a new tricolour look as the entire city has been draped in huge Indian national flags. Champs Elysees, perhaps the world's most famous boulevard, has been lined with French and Indian flags and the Arc de Triomphe (the monument to Napoleon's victories) has been covered with gigantic Indian and French flags, hanging almost through the entire 50 m height of the monument. The same is true of the Presidential office at Palais Elysees, the Prime Ministers' Office at Matignon, the external affairs ministry at Quai d'Orsay and Palais Marigny, where Narayanan will be staying.

Later in the day, the President and his wife, Usha, attended a reception hosted by ambassador Sibal at his residence. The reception was attended by over 300 leading members of the Indian community in Paris. The President is being accompanied by Union Minister Jagmohan, co-president of the Indo-French Forum Ramakrishna Hegde and foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh. A dozen journalists are also part of the presidential delegation.

On Monday morning, the President had an hour-long meeting with a dozen leading names in the French intellectual community at the reputed Institute Français des Relations Internationales (French Institute for International Relations) in Paris.

But the crucial meeting is Monday evening when Narayanan meets his French counterpart Jacques Chirac for a 90 minute meeting, to be followed by a state banquet at Palais Elysees.

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