{"id":771192,"date":"2026-02-17T20:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/771192\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T20:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:50:14","slug":"france-and-india-deepen-strategic-ties-on-first-day-of-macrons-official-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/771192\/","title":{"rendered":"France and India deepen strategic ties on first day of Macron’s official visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

French President Emmanuel Macron<\/a> began his three-day state visit in Mumbai<\/a> by honouring the victims of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and meeting Bollywood<\/a> stars, before kicking off talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn today\u2019s turbulent world, this is a partnership for global stability,\u201d Prime Minister Modi said after their meeting, with both heads of state referring to each other as their “dear friend” in statements on social media.<\/p>\n

President Macron praised what he called a \u201cremarkable acceleration\u201d in bilateral ties in response to the \u201cchanging international order\u201d, adding that both countries did not want to be subjected to \u201cany form of hegemony\u201d.<\/p>\n

Macron in India to expand defence, trade ties beyond US and China<\/a><\/p>\n

This is Macron\u2019s fourth trip to India<\/a> since taking office in 2017. He is accompanied by his wife Brigitte Macron<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘Contract of the century’<\/p>\n

Defence remains at the heart of the relationship. Indian authorities recently cleared the proposed purchase of 114 additional Rafale<\/a> fighter jets from French manufacturer Dassault<\/a> Aviation in a deal estimated at around \u20ac30 billion.<\/p>\n

Christophe Jaffrelot, an India specialist at Sciences Po Center for International Studies in Paris,\u00a0has described the potential deal as the \u201ccontract of the century\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, negotiations over technical and commercial \u201cdetails\u201d are ongoing, particularly surrounding domestic production.<\/p>\n

An Indian defence ministry statement indicated that the \u201cmajority\u201d of the aircraft would be manufactured in India. If finalised, the agreement would add to the 62 Rafales already acquired by India.<\/p>\n

India signs multi-billion-dollar deal with France for 26 Rafale jets<\/a><\/p>\n

India, the world\u2019s largest arms importer, also announced a 15 percent increase in military spending to\u00a0\u20ac71\u00a0billion earlier this month,\u00a0reinforcing its position as a key market for French defence firms.<\/p>\n

The two leaders also inaugurated, via videoconference, a helicopter assembly line in Vemagal, in the southern state of Karnataka near tech hub of Bengaluru. The joint venture between India\u2019s Tata Group and Airbus<\/a> will manufacture the Airbus H125, the company\u2019s best-selling single-engine helicopter.<\/p>\n

Among sensitive geopolitical issues discussed was Ukraine<\/a>. India has not condemned Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion and has continued buying oil from Moscow<\/a>. Macron urged Indian support for \u201can immediate and lasting moratorium on attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure\u201d, as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators opened US-brokered talks in Geneva\u00a0on Tuesday<\/p>\n

President Macron will be in New Delhi on Wednesday and Thursday for an artificial intelligence<\/a> summit hosted by PM Modi.<\/p>\n

(with newswires)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French President Emmanuel Macron began his three-day state visit in Mumbai by honouring the victims of the 2008…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5309],"tags":[225659,48798,34,2000,299,36,43718,66912,730,22817,225660],"class_list":["post-771192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-2008-mumbai-terror-attacks","tag-brigitte-macron","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-french-president","tag-heads-of-state","tag-india","tag-narendra-modi","tag-turbulent-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116087948920232278","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}