PM Modi To Visit France In February

France President Macron said that PM Modi will be present at AI summit to be hosted by France in February immediately after the state visit.

Paris:Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a state visit to France and then participate in the AI Summit to be held here in February, President Emmanuel Macron has said.

“France will be hosting on February 11 and 12 the AI Summit, a summit for action, which will enable us to discuss artificial intelligence,” Macron said.

“Prime Minister Modi will be there immediately after the state visit to our country. This (the AI Summit) will enable us to have a dialogue with all the powers, IEA, US, China and major nations such as .... India which has a role to play as well as the Gulf States,” he said.

Even though Macron said February 11 and 12, the “AI Action Summit” is to be held on February 10 and 11. French was addressing a gathering of French Ambassadors earlier this week. He presented his foreign policy for 2025 and spoke on a number of topics, including its equation with the US post-Trump win, according to his speech live-streamed on France24.

Modi's last meeting with Macron was on November 18 on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was the third meeting between the two leaders in 2024, after President Macron’s visit to India as the Chief Guest for the Republic Day celebrations in January and their meeting on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Italy in June, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said then.

During the November 2024 meeting, the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to advance the India-France Strategic Partnership as well as their shared vision for bilateral cooperation and international partnership, outlined in the Horizon 2047 roadmap and other bilateral declarations.

They commended the progress achieved in bilateral cooperation, including in strategic areas such as defence, space and civil nuclear energy, and committed to accelerating it further with a view to reinforcing their shared commitment to strategic autonomy, the MEA said.

“The two leaders commended the strengthening of trade, investment, and technology ties, including in the areas of digital technology and Artificial Intelligence, as well as India India-France partnership on Digital Public Infrastructure,” the MEA said, adding, “In this context, Prime Minister welcomed the initiative of President Macron to organise the forthcoming AI Action Summit in France,”

EuroNews.com said last week that the AI Action Summit in France comes after the UK and South Korea hosted the first events on AI, gathering heads of state, international organisations as well as businesses.

“France’s AI Action Summit, to be held on 10 and 11 February, aims to present Europe as the 'leading AI continent,' Euronews said, quoting the minutes of the bloc's telecom attachés seen by it.