Prime Minister Manmohan Singh embarks on Monday on the second leg of what is easily one of his most hectic two-weeks of diplomacy, flying back to Europe for an 18-hour stopover in France two days after returning from Italy, and then heading to Egypt for a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

But unlike last week's pow-wows with world leaders over the global economic crisis, trade talks and climate change, this trip is more about geopolitical symbolisms: the coming of age of the friendship between Paris and New Delhi and the relevance of a grouping such as NAM, which some critics say is a relic of the Cold War.

Besides, all eyes are on Singh's scheduled meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, Yousuf Raza Gilani, on the sidelines of the NAM summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. New Delhi is hoping that Islamabad will give an indication of its seriousness to act against the perpetrators of the 26/11 attack on Mumbai before India can consider resuming the composite dialogue between the two countries.

For starters though, Singh will become one of the few world leaders and the first Indian leader to be honoured as the chief guest at France's Bastille Day parade on the occasion of its national day celebrations on Tuesday.

Singh will not be the only foreign leader at the celebrations. Cambodian President Hun Sen and German President Horst Kohler are also attending the commemoration of the storming of the Bastille fort-prison and the birth of the modern French nation in 1789.

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