France celebrates National Day with grand parade

（Xinhua）  08:34, July 15, 2013  

PARIS July 14 (Xinhua) -- French President Francois Hollande on Sunday joined by a number of honorable guests to inspect the parade led by Malian troops in celebration of the Bastille Day in the capital city of Paris.

Opening on Sunday morning on Paris Champs-Elysees Avenue, the annual military parade led by 60 Milian troops and a detachment of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force drew broad attention from audience both on the scence and on TVs.

All together 13 African troops were marching at the parade. They were invited by France to honor their role of backing French army in its military intervention in Mail.

The troops' presentation, including French soldiers involved in the Malian mission, highlighted Hollande's contribution by sending French army to help the Malian government fight against al-Qaeda linked Islamists, breaking their efforts to get full control over the western African country, a formal colony of France.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said before the parade that the display is "the mark of a solidarity that concretely expressed itself in Mali, and of a common destiny, even beyond the limits of continents, of which we have every reason to be proud."

The display also included flyovers by fighter jets, tanks and giant trucks mounted with land-to-air defense systems. It was closed by the showcase of an array of 35 helicopters used in wartime and for civilian missions, following by precision parachutists landed in front of the presidential stand.

The guests of honor attending the celebration ceremony included UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Mali President Dioncounda Traore and President of Croatia Ivo Josipovic.

Bastille Day marks the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 which ended Louis XVI's absolute monarchy.