‘To the people of India…’: France's Emmanuel Macron shares special message on PM Modi’s visit

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday night shared a video on the key events during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France. This video showed events like PM Modi receiving the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour and participation of the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force in the Bastille Day parade.  

It also showed the participation of Rafale jets in the Bastille Day parade. Macron shared the almost two-minute-long video on Twitter and wrote: “To the people of India, trust and friendship”.  

Besides this, PM Modi also attended a banquet dinner in Louvre museum and delegation-level talks at the Elysee Palace. PM Modi and Macron also posed for a selfie after signing a series of agreements. The video also shows actor and director R Madhavan in a brief conversation with President Macron before the French President clicked a selfie with Modi. Madhavan told Macron: “It is such a pleasure. I am a huge fan”.

Prime Minister Modi and President Macron adopted a joint statement named 'Horizon 2047: 25th Anniversary of the India-France Stratetgic Partnership, Towards A Century of India-France Relations'. India and France announced in a joint statement that they will jointly develop a combat aircraft engine. French company Safran and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will prepare a roadmap for this joint project before 2023-end. The joint statement also mentioned the “timely delivery” of 36 Rafale fighter jets for the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the success of the P75 programme.  

An MoU has also been signed between the Mazagaon Dockyard Ltd and Naval Group for development of three submarines after the success of the first Scorpene submarine construction programme (P75-Kalavari). Besides defence cooperation, the statement also talked about enhancing scientific and commercial partnership between the two nations through several agreements between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and France’s CNES.

These agreements are focused on areas such as reusable launchers, finalisation of the joint Earth observation satellite TRISHNA, the first phase of the constellation of maritime surveillance satellites in the Indian Ocean, and the protection of Indo-French satellites in orbit against the risk of collision.  

The two nations also agreed on welcoming 30,000 Indian Students in France by 2030 and the issuance of a five-year short-stay Schengen visa for Indian students with a Master’s degree who have studied at a university in France. India and France also announced that a Consulate General of India will be set up in Marseille and a Bureau de France will be set up in Hyderabad.  

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