Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France from February 10-12 will bolster India-France ties. Key highlights include co-chairing the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit with President Emmanuel Macron, addressing the India-France CEOs Forum, and inaugurating an Indian consulate in Marseille. Defence deals worth $10 billion, AI cooperation, and progress on the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project are expected. The visit will also explore Indo-Pacific cooperation, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, and Horizon 2047 goals. Educational exchanges and strategic partnership advancements will further strengthen bilateral relations.
By : Mohit Anand, Rajesh Mehta
India-France relations will see another boost during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France from February 10-12. PM Modi will visit Paris to attend and co-chair the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit at the invitation of the French President Emmanuel Macron. France said the gathering will focus on concrete actions to ensure that the global AI sector can drive beneficial social, economic and environmental outcomes in the public interest. The summit will address five primary themes: public interest in AI, future of work, innovation and culture, trust in AI, and global governance of AI. The French President emphasised the importance of AI as a global conversation, stating that it will include countries such as the US, China, and India, as well as countries from the Gulf, which have significant roles in developing and regulating AI technologies.
The expectation is that Modi’s visit to Paris will also have a strong bilateral component. PM Modi and President Macron will address the India-France CEOs Forum. He will then travel to the port city of Marseille on the evening of February 11, where President Macron will host a dinner in his honour. They will together inaugurate an Indian consulate in Marseille. The opening of the new consulate, which was announced during Modi’s visit to France in 2023, will enhance people-to-people ties between the two countries as well as give India a strong diplomatic presence in southern France as Marseille is strategically located along the global shipping lines of the Mediterranean Sea.
Defence Deals To Geopolitical Churn: A Lot On The Table
On February 12, PM Modi will visit a war cemetery to pay tribute to Indian soldiers who fought in World War I. Sources also said the PM Modi will visit Cadarache, the site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a major high-science project in which India is a key partner along with several other countries. The visit may also see major announcements towards enhancing India’s defence capabilities. Deals in the areas of defence, small modular reactors (SMR) and aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) are on the cards, as is a France-India roadmap on AI.
Defence deals worth over $10 billion are expected to be announced during the visit and concluded later. This will include the purchase of 26 Rafale-M fighter jets for the Indian Navy’s aircraft carriers, and three Scorpene-class conventional submarines. In addition, the two countries are at advanced stages of talks for co-design and co-development of a 110-KN aero engine to power India’s fifth-generation fighter, the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, that is under development. These defence deals will further strengthen one of the three tridents of Indo-French partnership (defence, space and civil nuclear programmes). It also provides an opportunity for both sides to accelerate the progress on the stalled Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project (JNPP) and find ways for an early conclusion of an agreement in this regard.
Interactions between the two leaders will take cognisance of the geopolitical situations, be it the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, besides China and terrorism. New Delhi and Paris have strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific and their cooperation in the region will be reviewed, along with focusing on the emerging India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) where France can be a critical player so far as Europe is considered.
This visit will be an opportune time to assess bilateral relations as espoused under Horizon 2047 — a roadmap that was adopted in 2023 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Indo-French strategic partnership. The idea was to set the course for the bilateral relationship up to 2047, which will celebrate the centenary of India’s independence, the centenary of the diplomatic relations between the two countries, and 50 years of the strategic partnership. As mentioned in Horizon 2047, India and France need to join forces to make science, technological innovation and academic cooperation vectors of progress. Academic cooperation can be of particular interest with greater academic and research exchanges between institutions of the two nations.
With uncertainty in the US, strained relations with Canada and visa restrictions for the UK and Australia, France can emerge as a top destination for Indian students pursuing higher education abroad. This is aligned with the focus on people-to-people exchanges where France has set a target of having 30,000 Indian students in France by 2030.
This is PM Modi’s sixth official visit to France. This reflects on the burgeoning relationship between the two countries which has strengthened year on year. The bilateral exchanges during this visit must review and accelerate cooperation across several fronts such as trade and investment, technology, AI and security as well as talent. The strategic partnership between India and France must reflect on and review the way forward for this all-weather friendship and a relationship where avenues of cooperation and collaboration are limitless.
Mohit Anand is Professor of International Business and Strategy at EMLYON Business School, France. Rajesh Mehta is a consultant and columnist working on market entry, innovation and public policy.
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