Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was honored during France’s Bastille Day celebrations, marked by tight security following recent riots, and the event showcased the deepening ties between France and India, despite concerns over human rights and geopolitical differences.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was guest of honor during France’s Bastille Day celebrations on Friday, which are taking place under tight security two weeks after riots swept the country.

Around 45,000 police are set to be deployed nationwide in the evening. At the same time, fireworks sales have been banned as the government aims to prevent a repeat of the urban violence seen at the end of June following the police killing of a teenager.

The annual Bastille Day festivities, which marked the Bastille prison’s storm at the start of the French Revolution in 1789, kicked off with a traditional military parade in the morning that saw tanks, planes, and soldiers sweep down the Champs Elysees.

After the ceremony, French President Emmanuel Macron awarded Modi the grand cross of the Legion of Honour, the country’s top order of merit, which Modi hailed as “an honor for the 1.4 billion residents of India”.

The wooing of Modi this year reflects deepening ties between France and India, marking 25 years of “strategic partnership.”

The Indian Defense Ministry on Thursday announced its intention to procure another 26 French-made Rafale fighter jets and three more Scorpene-class submarines in a deal expected to be worth billions of euros.

India has already purchased 36 Rafales, three of which flew over Paris during Friday’s parade.

Despite differences over the war in Ukraine and concerns over human rights in India, Western democracies are courting India as a military and economic counterweight to China.

Bastille Day is set to be a more sober affair than in previous years, following five nights of rioting from June 27 after the fatal police shooting of a teenager in a Paris suburb.

Security forces were deployed en masse ahead of Bastille Day on Thursday night, which had been “relatively calm,” the interior ministry said.

Amid the diplomatic courting of Modi, a resolution from the European Parliament on Thursday served as a reminder that he and his Hindu nationalist agenda have garnered critics at home and abroad.

EU parliamentarians approved a motion urging India to end violence in northeastern Manipur state and protect minorities there.

Honoring Modi at Bastille Day was “an affront not only to India’s minority communities, journalists, and human rights defenders but also to India as a democracy,” the text’s chief negotiator, Pierre Larrouturou, said afterward.

Miroslava Salazar with AFP