Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will fly to France tomorrow to participate in SIAL Paris 2026, his office confirmed here today.SIAL (Salon International de l’Alimentation) is the world’s largest international trade fair for the food, retail and hospitality industries. The event, which started in 1964, is organised at the Paris Nord Villepinte exhibition centre in France. Punjab’s cooperative marketing federation, Markfed, is setting up a stall at the event.The development follows Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya of the Punjab and Haryana High Court allowing a petition filed by the Punjab Government challenging the Ministry of External Affairs’ decision to deny political clearance “without assigning any reason” for the official visit of a delegation led by the Chief Minister to France for the promotion of trade.The official website of SIAL shows that the event will have at least 8,000 exhibitors from 130 countries. At least 4,00,000 products will be on display at the event. The international food show is laid out as a hub of food innovation, bringing together producers, distributors, restaurateurs, and importers and exporters on a common platform.Terming it “arbitrary, without authority of law and violative of the federal structure of the Constitution”, the Punjab Government had sought the “quashing of the decision denying political clearance for the visit of the Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister.