Modi’s visit special, several deals in pipeline; Indian Army in parade, Indian Rafales in our sky on Bastille Day: French envoy Emmanuel Lenain

By Naveen Kapoor
New Delhi [India], July 4 (ANI): India and France are working on several commercial and government-to-government agreements that may be inked during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's forthcoming visit to France.
India and France will be cooperating and aiming for joint production in high technology during PM Modi's visit to the European nation.
When asked what agreements can be signed during the visit, the French Ambassador to India, Emmanuel Lenain told ANI, "There will be lot of them, each time there is an important meeting at that level, there will be some new momentum for cooperation, We work in the spirit of partnership, French companies have been the pioneers for years for make in India and now we totally understood the philosophy of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and they really want to share best technologies and to develop jointly in future."
PM Narendra Modi will be the guest of honor at France Bastille day, the National Day where Indian troops will take part in the parade and India's Rafales will fly over sky.
"It doesn't happen we have guest of honor every year, but this year it is very special that it is 25th anniversary of strategic partnership between France and India and we wanted to have India troops in parade and too also have Indian Rafales in the sky," Ambassador of France told ANI in an interview.
"Chemistry between the two leaders is excellent. They have a very good personal chemistry, they call each other often, they consult, they discuss, very direct," the French ambassador added.
India and France will also be drafting a roadmap for new cooperation on the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relationship as well.
"On 25th anniversary this year we are going to draft a roadmap top open for new cooperation in the field of technology , fight against climate change global issues , people to people exchanges there will be a lot of news and also there are ongoing cooperation's that are now mature which makes for new agreements which we are going to announce in a few days " the envoy said in an exclusive interview to ANI ahead of Prime Minister visit to France.
The French ambassador confirmed that the consignment of 36 Rafale aircraft has been delivered to the Indian Air Force and said "36 Rafales for the Air Force have been delivered on time in spite of covid pandemic, industry worked extra shifts, night, weekends so that Rafales can be delivered to Indian Air Force on time and your pilots are very well trained and I have been told that Rafales are fully operational."
The envoy said that France also want India to play larger role at the international fora. " We want to see more of India in international governance and obviously for country like mine we welcome we are totally aligned, we share values, we are large democracies, we have same vision of open Indo-Pacific so we want to see more of India at UNSC, we support candidature of India as permanent member, we want to see you more to solve global efforts to solve global issues, years ago in 2105 two countries initiated solar alliance,"Emmanuel Lenain said.
India and France are natural partners in fighting scourge of terrorism , he said "We are natural partners to fight against the scourge of terrorism , this is true in terms of operational training , we do a lot your NSG , black cats trained with use , we share lot information and intelligence and also we have to go to the roots of terrorism to fight against the financing of terrorism that why we launched no money for terror and we are very happy that India now is in the driver seat and chaired the last meeting." (ANI)