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New Delhi:
France at the moment described India as its “foremost” strategic associate in Asia and stated the upcoming go to of its Defence Minister Florence Parly to the nation is geared toward additional strengthening the “forward-looking” defence cooperation with New Delhi.
Ms Parly will go to India on Thursday to attend a ceremony in Ambala to induct the primary batch of 5 Rafale jets into the Indian Air Force (IAF).
The French Defence Minister will maintain talks together with her Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
A Defence Ministry spokesperson stated Ms Parly might be given a ceremonial Guard of Honour on her arrival in Delhi.
The first batch of 5 Rafale jets arrived in India on July 29, almost 4 years after India signed an inter-governmental settlement with France to obtain 36 of the plane at a value of Rs 59,000 crore.
In a press release, the French embassy in New Delhi stated the main focus of the talks might be on maritime safety ties within the Indo-Pacific, counter-terror cooperation and strengthening total bilateral defence partnership.
“Their broad-ranging talks will cover, among others, industrial and technological partnership in line with the Make in India programme, operational defence cooperation, particularly maritime security in the Indo-Pacific, modalities of continuing the armed forces” joint exercises in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, counter-terrorism cooperation as well as major regional and international strategic issues,” the embassy stated.
It stated the talks will take ahead the choice of French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deepen and develop the Indo-French partnership with strategic autonomy, and the defence of a multi-polar order as its cornerstones.
It might be Ms Parly’s third go to to India since 2017 and one among her very first official journeys because the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic, the embassy stated.
The French Defence Minister might be accompanied by high executives from Dassault Aviation, Thales Group, Safran, and MBDA, representing the French defence majors which have been partnering with many Indian corporations as a part of the Rafale deal.
“At Ambala, the program will include ceremonial unveiling of the Rafale aircraft, a traditional ‘Sarva Dharma Puja’, air display by Rafale and Tejas aircraft as well as by ‘Sarang Aerobatic Team”,” the Defence Ministry stated in a press release.
Afterwards, a standard water cannon salute might be given to the Rafale plane, it stated.
The Rafale jets, produced by French aerospace main Dassault Aviation, might be formally inducted into the IAF on the ceremony in Ambala air base on Thursday in presence of Mr Singh, Ms Parly and a number of other high army officers.
During her go to to the nationwide capital, Ms Parly will even pay floral tributes to India’s valiant troopers on the National War Memorial.
In a video message posted on Twitter, French ambassador Emmanuel Lenain talked concerning the strategic ties between the 2 nations and described the go to of Ms Parly as one of many necessary steps additional boosting bilateral relationship.
The ties between India and France are on an upswing in the previous couple of years with cooperation witnessing a significant growth in key areas.
The areas of defence and safety, civil nuclear cooperation and commerce and funding represent the principal pillars of the Indo-French strategic partnership.
In addition, India and France are more and more engaged in new areas of cooperation resembling within the Indian Ocean area, local weather change and sustainable development and growth.
The two nations share an in depth diploma of convergence on a variety of regional and world points as effectively together with methods to take care of terrorism and extremism.
Both India and France have necessary bilateral funding and commerce cooperation. France has emerged as a significant supply of FDI in India with greater than 1,000 French institutions working within the nation with a complete turnover of round USD 20 billion.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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