New Delhi: Two days after returning from the G8-G5 summit in Italy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is leaving for France on Monday on a 24-hour visit before flying to Egypt to attend the non-aligned summit where he will also meet with Pakistan's prime minister on the sidelines.
In Paris, Manmohan Singh will be the guest of honour at the Bastille Day, officially celebrated as the French National Day on July 14. An Indian Army contingent, representing all three services, is already in France rehearsing to take part in the military parade for the first time.
A statement issued by external affairs ministry said that the prime minister's visit will "further consolidate" the warm and cordial bilateral ties between the two countries and enhance partnership in the fields of trade, commerce, energy, defence, space, culture, science and technology, education and tourism.
Manmohan Singh will be later flying off to attend the 15th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh July 15-16.
He will also meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the summit, a month after he met with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on the sideline of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.
On Saturday, talking to reporters aboard his special aircraft on way back home from the G8-G5 summit, Singh said that he was looking forward to meeting Gilani.
"I hope that out of that meeting, renewed reaffirmation will come on part of Pakistan that it will bring perpetrators of the Mumbai massacre to justice and that Pakistan's territory will not be used for such activities. If that is done, we are willing to walk more than half the distance," he reiterated.
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