INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
was tarnished by violent clashes between police and protesters.Key EU leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime
Minister Mark Rutte, joined Macron in Paris to watch the annual parade that included representatives of nine other European armies in a show
of unity.But the celebrations of France's national day were tarnished by clashes that subsequently erupted between protesters and police
that recalled violence seen at the peak of the "yellow vest" protest movement earlier this year.Police fired tear gas to clear protesters
Protesters tore down security barriers and set fire to rubbish bins and portable toilets, AFP correspondents said.The earlier parade itself
Some 4,300 members of the armed forces marched down the avenue's famed cobblestones in a tradition that dates back to the aftermath of World
War I.Even before the clashes erupted, Paris authorities said 152 people had been detained.But standing in an open-top command car alongside
France's chief of staff General Francois Lecointre, Macron was met with some jeers and whistles from supporters of the yellow vest
movement.Two prominent members of the movement, Jerome Rodrigues and Maxime Nicolle, were both detained by the police, sources told AFP.Even
before the clashes erupted, Paris authorities said 152 people had been detained.'Army transforming'A futuristic highlight of the parade came
when French inventor and entrepreneur Franky Zapata showed off his futuristic flyboard, soaring above the Champs Elysees and the assembled
leaders."The army is transforming: it is modernising for our soldiers, our sovereignty and our independence," Macron told France 2
television in brief remarks.Closer European defence cooperation has been one of Macron's key foreign policy aims and the president shows no
sign of wavering despite growing political turbulence in Germany and Britain's looming exit from the European Union.At the 2017 parade,
Macron's guest of honour was the newly inaugurated President Donald Trump as the young French leader sought to form a bond with his US
counterpart.But since then ties between Trump and Macron have soured over the US pullouts from the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear
deal, as well as France's new law for a tax on digital giants, most of them US companies."President Trump has been an excellent ambassador
for a Europe of defence," Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly told the Parisien newspaper Sunday, pointing to "questions, even thinly
veiled threats he made towards Europe or on the durability of American commitment".'Europe never so important'Macron, who pushed the idea of
the European Intervention Initiative (EI2) to undertake missions outside of existing structures like NATO, insisted on the importance of
European defence cooperation."Never, since the end of World War II has Europe been so important," Macron, who after coming to power in 2017
controversially dispensed with the president's traditional July 14 television interview, said in a written statement.Merkel told reporters
after the event that the parade was a "great gesture for a European defence policy" and Germany was "honoured" to have taken part.In a sign
of France's ambition to be a leading modern military power under Macron, the president Saturday announced the creation of a national space
force command that will eventually be part of the air force.Among the foreign airpower taking part in flybys were two British Chinook
helicopters, a symbol of British-French defence cooperation even as Brexit looms.Britain has deployed three of the aircraft and 100
personnel for France's operation in the African Sahel region.Outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May had been expected to attend, but
Britain was instead represented by senior cabinet minister David Lidington, the Elysee said.(Except for the headline, this story has not
been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)Get Breaking news, live coverage, and Latest News from
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