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Transcript
00:00Thank you very much for your attention.
00:06Thank you, sir. May I now request His Excellency, Mr Emmanuel Macron,
00:12President of the French Republic, to give his remarks to the media.
00:17Merci beaucoup, Monsieur le Premier ministre.
00:21Thank you, Prime Minister Modi. Thank you, Ministers, Ambassadors,
00:28Journalists, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Prime Minister,
00:33for your warm welcome here in India. It is my fourth official visit here,
00:39and it follows a year after your visit to France for the Summit on Artificial Intelligence
00:51and the bilateral meetings in Marseille. We do not forget what happened then
01:00and the opening of the consulate in which we both participated. The cooperation between India and
01:07France is now stepping up because of a change in the international order. As we've already said,
01:19we will continue in the coming hours and days to strengthen this relationship that has been marked
01:26by our trust, our openness and our ambition. We will speed up our partnerships, our strategic partnerships
01:38at global scale, which will set a new page for the international cooperation between France and India.
01:46This comes from a common understanding and a common commitment that we've followed for the last eight years.
01:54Year after year, events have confirmed our worst expectations. We hoped for a free and open Pacific,
02:05which is perfect for cooperation in trade and various forms of culmination. We thought that we would not be faced
02:16with any kind of hegemonia. We believe in cooperation and efficient collaborative efforts,
02:23and we have seen these efforts bear fruit, such as IMEC, which you mentioned during the G20.
02:34You defended these ideas. The governance of AI is also important. You had a summit on that,
02:44and I do not forget the cooperation that we launched eight years ago. For bilateral relations,
02:54these are things that we want to step up. We have renewed ambitions for our students, for our companies,
03:01and in particular for our start-ups and small and medium enterprises and bilateral trade.
03:09France is proud to be a trustworthy partner within the India program, and our industrial sectors are ready to provide
03:22all the cooperation they can.
03:25Our cooperation in defense is also important. Let me cite the Rafale fighter planes and submarines,
03:34as well as the final assembly line opened by Tata in Bangalore and Karnataka. The engines for the future NCA
03:48new generation fighter aircraft,
03:50the new air-to-sky missile air hammer, which will be made in India, is only one of many other
03:58projects that I would like to mention.
04:00Made in India is a label that will help us to ensure cooperation in all the newest technologies. The importance
04:09that both our countries give to strategic autonomy is a foundation of our cooperation and our ambitions in all these
04:19fields.
04:20Defense, as you said, and so have I, is also a part of many other elements of our efforts and
04:29our ambitions. We also have ambitions beyond the stratosphere in air space, rather, space.
04:38France has, for India has moved forward very much, and there will be an important meeting next July on this
04:49topic. Civil airline engineering is also important. We have worked within the cooperation projects in Jaitapur, and we will continue
05:02to do so.
05:02Critical minerals are also essential. We have signed a common roadmap, and India and France share a common vision on
05:13all these issues. We will not be passive when faced with hegemony, and we will not fall into the trap
05:20of not cooperation, as some have.
05:25We will continue to work along the lines of cooperation, and in other fields, too, such as railways and high
05:32-speed trails, trains.
05:35France wishes to be a trustworthy, long-term partnership in all these fields. We have continued discussions with the Prime
05:45Minister, with constructive and trustworthy cooperation that are in line with all the efforts that have been deployed in the
05:53last years.
05:54We have shared ambitions. We have shared ambitions in order to increase our trade, the will to have more and
06:01more cooperation and technology transfer, and we will soon jointly join the Indo-French Year of Cooperation, the Indian-French
06:12Year of Innovation, different measures that will help bring together our industrial sectors, our start-ups, enterprises,
06:23and researchers. This is an important year that coincides to the spirit of cooperation that has driven our ministries in
06:34the last years.
06:35The French Indian Center for AI in medicine is another project worth mentioning. I will be here in New Delhi
06:48and with the MS, an important organization here in that field.
06:54Our partnerships will be strengthened and made closer in order to make our economy stronger and to create greater diversity
07:04in our economies. Strategic cooperation is something that will be strengthened in our roadmap.
07:12The road map 2027, something that was launched in Paris in 2023 as part of a strategic cooperation. It describes
07:21the various points of bilateral and structural elements of bilateral cooperation. We will strengthen cooperation in higher education.
07:36And tomorrow in Delhi, there will be high-level university and research meetings, the RUSH
07:46initiative, which brings together over 200 Indian and French educational organizations.
07:54This is in line with our ambitions.
07:56We have been too slow in the last years.
08:05France has often been seen too much as a destination, and we have perhaps been too inflexible when
08:12it comes to issuing visas to Indian students, and we will do our best to make this easier
08:18in future.
08:18We also want to ensure that projects are implemented.
08:26Various decisions have been taken to facilitate transit visas in our airports to make France
08:33an easier transit country for long-distance communications.
08:37That is why tomorrow at the French Institute in India, we will be strengthening our creative
08:49passports for Indian creatives, which will also underpin stronger cooperation with our respective
08:56creatives and artists.
09:00The lighting up of India Gate this evening will also be a symbol and a celebration of
09:06our cultural cooperation.
09:11Indian film directors will be present and will underscore the importance of our relationship.
09:18There have been difficulties in recent times, but we have undertaken all measures to make
09:26it easier for our countries to cooperate in creative and artistic fields.
09:31This will be strengthened in the current and following years.
09:35This all underscores the important vision of a strong and efficient bilateral cooperation.
09:44We want a future for a respectful and open cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
09:52This goes hand in hand with trade cooperation.
09:58We believe in fair exchanges.
10:03We reject coercion.
10:05And that's why I believe that the cooperation agreement between France and India is a good
10:10step in the right direction.
10:11And we will continue down this path.
10:14Our efforts underscore our shared commitments for the development of artificial intelligence.
10:22So we spoke about this last year, yesterday as well.
10:26And we have a program which underscores these ambitions and will allow our countries to cooperate
10:32when it comes to data centers, reinforced computing power, large language model development.
10:39But more important, the dissemination of these technologies.
10:46We share the same will to have an international, an artificial intelligence that respects diversity.
10:59The world of la francophonie reflects the diversity of our world.
11:06And we believe that there is a need to better regulate artificial intelligence and social networks.
11:14We need algorithms that are more transparent and we need to protect our youth.
11:19This multilateralism is also something that we've seen in the large conflicts.
11:24We need to put an end to the war of aggression that has been deployed by Russia against Ukraine
11:30by the implementation of the United Nations Charter.
11:35We need to strengthen our common efforts to put in place a moratorium that will be immediate,
11:43a moratorium to the attacks against the civilian population of Ukraine.
11:51In the same vein, we will strengthen our common initiatives to fight against terrorism and its finencing,
12:00to put an end to terrorist activity these groups that have made us all suffer these last years.
12:06This year, 2026, is a year for strengthening and speeding up our partnership and making it more concrete and give
12:14it teeth.
12:16That is why India, presiding over the BRICS group and France at the head of the G7, will work together.
12:26President Modi will be a special guest at the G7 meeting in Evian.
12:34And that is why a few weeks before the G7 meeting, there will be an ad hoc meeting
12:40that will allow us to take concrete steps to work forward on an international program to prepare the Evian agreement.
12:53This cooperation is within a framework of bilateral cooperation and it will be a moment for innovation
13:01and for cooperation between French and Indian youth, better cooperation between our research centers, our university centers,
13:09cooperation between the youth of the G7 and India.
13:15All of this will allow us to mobilize ourselves to confront the major issues that face us today.
13:23Alongside the Indian Prime Minister, I wanted to highlight our ambition, the strengthening of our resolve
13:32and the partnership between India and France.
13:35This is a stable and very visible partnership that serves both of our peoples
13:41and it has borne many fruits these last years, but we want to make it even more fruitful thanks to
13:48the exchanges between our students and our private sector.
13:54We want to offer concrete solutions, whether it comes to solar energy, to the construction of larger infrastructure and artificial
14:04intelligence.
14:04We need concrete and real results and that is the spirit in which we want to move forward with Mr.
14:09Prime Minister.
14:11Through bilateral agreements and within the framework of our respective presidencies of the G7 of the BRICS,
14:20we will work in order to create greater conversions with our common visions.
14:25Thank you very much for your attention, ladies and gentlemen.
14:27Thank you very much for your attention, ladies and gentlemen.
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