New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a sales pitch for the Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launchers (MBLR) during bilateral discussions with French President Emmanuel Macron Wednesday, as the two countries sought to deepen and broaden defence ties.
The Pinaka MBLR has been exported by India to Armenia, and has been under consideration of the French military for a while, as reported by ThePrint.
Modi, who was in France for a three-day visit starting Monday, held bilateral talks with Macron after co-chairing the AI Action Summit in Paris the day before, before travelling together to Marseille in the French Presidential aircraft.
“The Prime Minister and President held discussions on board the aircraft. You could say that India-France relations touched new heights, literally. These discussions on board the aircraft on a number of issues continued upon landing in Marseille, where the two leaders were joined by their larger delegations,” said Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri at a special briefing on Wednesday.
Misri added: “These discussions covered the entire gamut of our deep and diverse strategic partnership. The two leaders reviewed progress in the area of defence, in the area of space, civil nuclear cooperation and in the areas of health as well as people-to-people cooperation between the two sides.”
The two governments issued a joint statement after the visit, which outlined the long standing cooperation in defence and security sectors between India and France. The two leaders welcomed the ongoing discussions in missiles, helicopter engines and jet engines, while welcoming the launch of the sixth and final Scorpene submarine INS Vaghsheer last month.
“Prime Minister Modi also invited the French Army to take a closer look at the Pinaka MBLR, emphasising that an acquisition of this system by France would be another milestone in Indo-French defence ties. In addition, President Macron welcomed the decision to include India as an observer to the Eurodrone MALE programme managed by OCCAR, which is another step forward in the growing strength of our partnership in defence equipment programmes,” said the joint statement published by the Ministry of External Affairs.
The discussions between the two leaders saw outcomes in areas of civil nuclear cooperation, artificial intelligence and startups. Both leaders also inaugurated India’s first consulate in France in Marseille, which was announced during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the European country in 2023.
Modi and Macron also paid respect to the fallen Indian soldiers from World War I and World War II, who have been laid to rest in the Mazargues War Cemetery near Marseille. This is the sixth visit by Modi to France. From Marseille, Modi will travel to Washington D.C. for bilateral talks with new US President Donald Trump.
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Agreements in civil nuclear cooperation
Apart from cooperation in the defence sector, India and France announced a bilateral roadmap for Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as signing a declaration of intent on “collaboration in co-designing, co-developing and co-producing” small modular nuclear reactors and advanced modular nuclear reactors, a decision reported by ThePrint earlier.
Small modular reactors (SMRs), are advanced nuclear reactors that have a power-generating capacity of up to 300 MW(e) per individual unit, which is roughly a third of the size of normal nuclear reactors. Russia and China are the only two countries to install and operate such reactors.
For India, nuclear energy, especially SMRs, is key for its transition towards renewable energy sources. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Nuclear Energy Mission in this year’s Union budget with an outlay of Rs 20,000 crore.
“Our intent is to be able to cooperate in co-designing the reactors, co-developing them and co-producing them. This, we feel, will actually allow us to tackle the complications that we are facing in other areas insofar as conventional (nuclear) projects are concerned,” explained Misri in the briefing.
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IMEC, trilateral cooperation & civil aviation
The two leaders also discussed the India-Middle East-Europe-Economic Corridor (IMEC), while acknowledging the strategic location of Marseilles in the Mediterranean Sea. The transport corridor, which was launched on the margins of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi in 2023, aims to connect India to Europe via West Asia.
France is the first country to appoint a special envoy for the IMEC project. It has pushed to see the corridor connect Mumbai with Marseille. A number of European countries wish to be a part of IMEC, including Greece, which last year positioned itself as the “doorstep” to Europe, during Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ visit to New Delhi.
“Both leaders stressed the importance of IMEC to foster connectivity, sustainable growth trajectories and access to clean energy across these regions. In this regard, they acknowledged the strategic location of Marseille in the Mediterranean Sea,” said the joint statement.
The joint statement also pushed trilateral cooperation between India, France and third countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Australia.
“They directed their concerned officials to work together with officials from the Governments of United Arab Emirates and Australia, towards identifying concrete projects of trilateral cooperation in the field of economy, innovation, health, renewable energy, education, culture, and the maritime domain, including under the IPOI and IORA as identified during the focal points meeting held virtually last year for both the trilateral dialogues,” the joint statement read.
In 2023, the Horizon 2047 joint programme announced by Modi and Macron set up the Indo-Pacific Triangular Cooperation Fund (IPTDC) aimed at supporting climate and sustainable development projects in third countries.
In the 2025 joint statement, the two welcomed an agreement between French development finance institution, Proparco, and Indian microfinance institutions for an equity agreement of EUR 13 million for financial inclusion and women empowerment projects in third countries in the Indo-Pacific region.
The joint statement also announced that the two countries were close to agreeing to a new enhanced framework for bilateral cooperation in civil aviation.
AI Roadmap
India and France made a joint declaration on artificial intelligence (AI), independent of the AI Action Summit, where the two countries would “ensure (that) norms governing their use” reflect the democratic values and harness the technologies for human development and the “common good”.
India and France promised to design and develop AI for “the public interest, respectful of human rights and fundamental freedoms” that does not result in “discrimination and inequality nor in the dissemination of misinformation and disinformation” under the new bilateral roadmap.
The countries also agreed to expand bilateral cooperation in AI in particular in fostering industrial partnerships between Indian and French businesses, deepen research partnerships in language models, support academic research looking into the consequences of AI, encourage civil society initiatives on the technology and establish stronger cooperation regarding children safety online.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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