New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi departed for France and the US Monday, with high-stakes engagements lined up in Paris, where he will co-chair the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit with French President Emmanuel Macron.
“At the invitation of President Macron, I will be visiting France from 10 to 12 February. In Paris, I look forward to co-chairing the AI Action Summit, a gathering of world leaders and global tech CEOs, where we will exchange views on a collaborative approach to AI technology for innovation and the larger public good in an inclusive, secure, and trustworthy manner,” said Modi as part of his departure statement before leaving New Delhi for Paris.
Modi will attend a dinner Monday as part of the AI summit, where industry leaders will meet with a number of global political figures, including US Vice-President J.D. Vance, Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Greek Prime Minister Kyriákos Mitsotákis, and the new Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin.
Apart from a number of European leaders, the AI Summit will see a number of industry figures in attendance, including Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet and Google; Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI; and Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta. A number of leaders from the international banking sector, including J.P. Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon and CitiBank’s CEO Jane Fraser, will also be present at the AI summit.
Other leaders from the tech industry attending the summit include Joe Tsai, president of Alibaba Group; Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture; Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google; Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD); Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI; Pascal Daloz, the CEO of Dassault Systèmes; and Vlad Kliatchko, the CEO of Bloomberg.
The high-powered summit is a pet project of Macron, who is aiming to assert the French and European positions on the global regulatory framework surrounding AI. For Modi, it is an opportunity to interact with leaders from both the political and business worlds.
This will be Vance’s first overseas trip as Vice-President of the US since his inauguration on 20 January. The leaders’ segment of the summit will take place Tuesday morning, with Modi serving as co-chair. A joint statement is a likely outcome from the summit. This is the third summit on AI, following the Bletchley Park summit on AI safety in London in 2023 and the summit in Seoul last year.
Following the summit, Prime Minister Modi will interact with a number of CEOs at the India-France CEO Forum before departing for Marseille, where President Macron will host a smaller bilateral dinner.
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Visit to Marseille & the US
The Indian Prime Minister will inaugurate India’s first consulate in Marseille alongside Macron before visiting the Mazargues War Cemetery. At the war cemetery, both Modi and Macron will pay their respects to the Indian soldiers laid to rest during World War I and World War II.
Modi will also visit the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, in which India is a participant. A number of agreements are expected during the Prime Minister’s visit to France, including a bilateral roadmap for AI and agreements on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) – nuclear reactors with an energy output of 300 MW(e) per individual unit, roughly a third of a standard nuclear power reactor, as reported earlier by ThePrint.
From France, the Indian Prime Minister will head to Washington D.C. for a two-day visit, where he will hold meetings with US President Donald J. Trump. This will be Modi’s first bilateral meeting with Trump since the latter returned to the White House last month.
The US visit is significant, given the number of challenges in ties between New Delhi and Washington, particularly regarding illegal immigration, trade deficits, and investments. Last week, a deportation flight from the US carrying 104 Indians sparked controversy in Parliament, as the deportees were restrained in a military plane. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar issued a statement in the Rajya Sabha, maintaining that deportations are not new.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, during a special briefing Friday, said that India had raised concerns over the treatment of the deportees with the American side. President Trump, in a telephonic conversation with Modi last month, indicated that he expects India to ensure “fair trade” with the US. India currently exports approximately $77 billion worth of goods to the US while importing around $42.1 billion worth of goods. The trade deficit in favour of New Delhi remains an irritant for Trump, who has sought to introduce tariffs on countries with large trade surpluses with the US, including China, Canada, and Mexico.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
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