The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, will be on a State visit to India from March 9-12 at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Apart from bilateral meeting, the two leaders will also jointly co-chair the founding conference of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) on 11 March.
Macron will be accompanied by his wife Brigitte Marie-Claude Macron and a delegation of Ministers and officials.
India-France strategic partnership, established in 1998, is one of the most important and comprehensive bilateral engagements and is marked by intense and frequent high level exchanges and deep political understanding. The last visit of the French President to India was in January, 2016, when the then President Francois Hollande was the Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebrations. The Indian PM last visited France in June 2017, immediately after President Macron was elected President.
"We have enhanced and ongoing cooperation in the defence, maritime, space, security, and energy-related sectors, and are increasingly working together on all issues of concern including terrorism, climate change, sustainable growth and development, infrastructure, smart urbanization, S&T cooperation, and youth exchanges. The visit of President Macron is aimed at strengthening the bilateral economic, political and strategic dimension of our engagement," Ministry of External Affairs said while announcing Macron's visit.
"The visit is also aimed at forging not only strong manufacturing and technology partnerships, but also greater people to people contacts especially through greater exchanges of students and researchers," the MEA said. The India-France CEO's Forum will also take place during the visit.
The bilateral trade between the two countries for the period April 2016 to March 2017 reached $10.95 billion. France is the ninth largest foreign investor in India with a cumulative investment of $ 6.09 billion from April 2000 to October 2017. Close to 1000 French companies have a presence in India. About 120 Indian companies have invested in excess of Euro 1 billion in France and employ close to 7000 people.
The Indian community, including NRIs in mainland France number around 1.1 lakh people; largely originating from French enclaves of Puducherry, Karaikal, Yanam, Mahe and Chandernagore.