New Delhi, Mar. 2 (IANS): French President Emmanuel Macron will arrive here on March 9 for a four-day state visit to India, during which he will hold a summit meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the External Affairs Ministry said on Thursday.
According to the Ministry statement, Modi and Macron will meet on March 10. Macron will also co-chair the founding conference of the India-initiated International Solar Alliance (ISA).
India-France relations, elevated to that of a strategic partnership in 1998, are one of the most important and comprehensive bilateral engagements and are marked by intense and frequent high-level exchanges and deep political unTrade between India and France in 2016-17 fiscal 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.
Around 1,000 French companies have operations in India while about 120 Indian companies have invested one billion euros in France and employ close to 7,000 people.
According to the statement, an India-France CEOs Forum will also take place during Macron’s visit.
The Indian community, including NRIs in mainland France, number around 110,000 and largely hail from the French enclaves of Puducherry, Karaikal, Yanam, Mahe and Chandernagore.
Modi and Macron shall co-chair the founding conference of the ISA on March 11. At least 55 countries are expected to attend the March 11 event, half of which will be represented at heads of state or heads of government level. The countries have been invited jointly by Modi and Macron.
The last French presidential visit took place in 2016 when Hollande visited as the chief guest of that year’s Republic Day celebrations.
