A primary feature in French President Emmanuel Macron's agenda for his India will be to push for at least 100-150 more Rafale jets.
This comes at a time when the current government is facing fire from the Opposition for the deal it struck over 36 Rafale jets.
While the earlier deal was struck with the previous French government, the Macron-led government is seeking to expand on it, sources told BusinessLine.
The business paper reported that French Defence Minister Florence Parly had already pushed for a follow-on order on Rafale during her visit to India last October. However, the Modi government was reportedly 'non-committal' on the proposal.
Macron will arrive in New Delhi on 9 March 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 1 March.
A framework agreement on Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project (JNPP) is expected to be signed between the two sides during the visit.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold delegation-level talks with the French president on 10 March.
The visit of President Macron is aimed at strengthening the bilateral economic, political and strategic dimension of our engagement.External Affairs Ministry statement
Modi earlier met Macron, soon after the latter was elected President, during a visit to Paris in June 2017.
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 understanding.
“We have enhanced ongoing cooperation in the defence, maritime, space, security, and energy-related sectors, and are increasingly working together on all issues of concern including terrorism, climate change, sustainable growth and development, infrastructure, smart urbanisation, science and technology cooperation, and youth exchanges,” the statement said.
Trade between India and France in the 2016-17 fiscal year 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 visit is also aimed at forging not only strong manufacturing and technology partnerships, but also greater people to people contacts especially through greater exchanges of students and researchers.External Affairs Ministry statement
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.
(With inputs from IANS & PTI)
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