He said the bilateral strategic partnership was enhanced further by President France Emmanuel Macron's visit to India in March last year
Describing India as a true partner, French Ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler on Tuesday said France is looking forward to further exchanges with India for providing support to deepen industrial relations in defence and the civilian aerospace sectors.
Speaking on the second day of the Paris Air Show, the Ambassador said: "I look forward to supporting all your efforts in the establishment of long-term and win-win cooperation in the aerospace and defence sectors."
"French aviation and defence industries have chosen India and will invest in this goal.
This choice was evident at the Aero India air show in Bangalore last February. With 49 French companies present, and a lot of military and civilian aircraft, France was, by far, the foremost foreign participant in the exhibition," he said.
He said France is India's oldest strategic partner and a significant one for defence and aerospace equipment, "not just as a supplier but as a true partner".
"As a matter of fact, Make-in-India has been a reality for the French industry for many years, particularly for defence equipment such as helicopters, missiles, submarines, aircraft engines and others. Our relations in this area date back to India's Independence and are being continuously strengthened. Today our strategic partnership is the strongest and closest we have in the Asia-Pacific region," Ziegler said.
He said the bilateral strategic partnership was enhanced further by President France Emmanuel Macron's visit to India in March last year.
"This visit was a great success in many respect and one of the areas of convergence of views between our leaders was the necessity to strengthen our manufacturing partnership in the industrial sector, particularly, in aerospace and defence, as clearly stated in their Joint Statement," he said.
"This political support at the highest level of both States provided the industries of both countries the best possible high-level framework for deepening their industrial relations in defence as well as the civilian aerospace sectors," he said. "You can count on our full political support for this and we are looking forward to further exchanges with the new Indian government in this respect," Ziegler said.
He said Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, French minister of state for Europe and Foreign Affairs, was in Delhi recently to discuss the next possible steps in the bilateral strategic partnership with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.
"Other high-level visits in India or in France will indeed occur in the weeks and months to come. Most importantly, Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi has accepted an invitation from President Macron to attend the outreach session of G7 Summit in France as a special invitee at the end of August. The event will of course also include a bilateral Indo-French component," he said.
"French industrial facilities in India, big and small, which we are strongly supporting, are indeed flourishing, and this is good news, especially because more and more Indian companies are also investing in France, like for instance Motherson, which is here with us today. We are also strongly supporting this investment from India in France as our strategic partnership is a two-way partnership, between partners and friends," he said.
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 "Photo: Reuters")
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