Fourteen Agreements signed between India and France

French President Emmanuel Macron is on three days (10-12 March 2018. ) official visit to India. After delegation level talks between India and France in New Delhi on March 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron jointly addressed the media. Some of the features of Joint media briefing are mentioned below:

• The French President appealed India to become his country’s first strategic partner as the two countries have same vision.
• The two leaders are going to co-host the Founding Summit of the International Solar Alliance in New Delhi on 11 March 2018. During the media briefing both said that;
• India and France are committed to deepen their cooperation in environment, maritime security and resources as well as freedom of navigation and overflight.
• Two countries are releasing a Joint Strategic Vision on Indian Ocean region on March 10.
• The world should work for disrupting terrorist networks and their financing channels and halting cross-border movement of terrorists like Al Qaeda, ISIS, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba and their affiliates and other terrorist groups threatening peace and security in South Asia and the Sahel region.
• On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the strategic partnership between India and France, the first to be established by India, the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to furthering it and decided to take it to a new level by agreeing to hold biennial summits between the Prime Minister of India and the President of the French Republic.
• They expressed support to the efforts of both sides to re-engage actively towards timely relaunching of negotiations for a comprehensive and mutually beneficial EU-India Broad Based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA).

14 Agreements signed

• India and France signed 14 agreements on March 10. These are:
  1. The Prevention of Illicit Consumption and Reduction of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Chemical Precursors and Related Offences.
  2. India-France Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement: This agreement will facilitate temporary circular migration based on mobility and the encouragement for a return of skills to the home country.
  3. Agreement between India and France to facilitate Mutual Recognition of Academic Qualifications.
  4. Memorandum of Understanding between Ministry of Railways and SNCF Motilities, France on technical cooperation in the field of Railways.
  5. Letter of Intent between India and France for creation of a permanent Indo-French Railways Forum.
  6. Agreement between India and France regarding the provision of reciprocal logistics support between their Armed Forces.
  7. Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and France on cooperation in the field of Environment.
  8. Agreement between India and France on cooperation in the field of Sustainable Urban Development.
  9. Agreement between India and France regarding the exchange and reciprocal protection of classified or protected information.
  10. Implementing Arrangement between Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Central National D’EtudesSpatiales (CNES) for pre-formulation studies of a Maritime Awareness Mission.
  11. Industrial Way Forward Agreement between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd, and EDF, France.
  12. Bilateral Arrangement between India and France on cooperation in the matter of Hydrography and Maritime Cartography.
  13. Credit Facility Agreement between India and France of Euros 100 million for funding of the Smart City Projects through a Challenge Process.
  14. Memorandum of Understanding between National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), Ministry of New & Renewable Energy and the National Solar Energy Institute (INES), France.

Common Cooperation Fields

• TRISHNA: The ongoing cooperation between their space agencies to realize the third joint satellite mission – TRISHNA, meant for eco-system stress and water use monitoring and also accommodation of French instrument on India’s OCEANSAT-3 satellite.
• France-India Programme for the Future”, a French initiative aimed at fostering youth exchanges,which are vital for future growth of India-France ties.
• Bilateral Trade: Aim of raising trade in goods to 15 billion euros by 2022.
• Knowledge Summit: The first Indo-French conference on research and higher education, in New Delhi on 10th and 11th March 2018.
• Indo-French Centre for Promotion of Advance Research (CEFIPRA) and congratulated it on its 30th anniversary, which was celebrated in 2017.
• India as a Guest of Honour in the 42nd edition of ‘Salon du Livre de Paris’ (French Book Fair) in the year 2020. Reciprocally, France will participate as a Guest of Honour in New Delhi World Book Fair in 2022.
• Establishment of a permanent Indo-French Railway Forum.
• The exemplary cooperation programme in the three Smart Cities of Chandigarh, Nagpur, and Puducherry.