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New Delhi: India and France on Tuesday introduced a sweeping growth of bilateral cooperation throughout defence, superior applied sciences, innovation, vital minerals, taxation and scientific analysis, alongside elevating their relationship to a Special Global Strategic Partnership throughout French President Emmanuel Macron’s go to to India.
The two nations formally upgraded their strategic ties and agreed to ascertain an annual dialogue between their overseas ministers to evaluate implementation of the elevated partnership and the Horizon 2047 roadmap, making a structured mechanism to observe long-term cooperation.
A serious defence milestone was the inauguration of the H125 helicopter last meeting line at Vemagal in Karnataka, strengthening India’s indigenous defence manufacturing functionality. India and France additionally renewed their defence cooperation settlement and introduced a three way partnership between Bharat Electronics Limited and Safran to provide HAMMER precision-guided missiles in India, considerably increasing defence industrial collaboration.
Both sides agreed to deepen military-to-military engagement by reciprocal deployment of officers at Indian Army and French Land Forces institutions, and established a Joint Advanced Technology Development Group to speed up cooperation in vital and rising defence applied sciences.
In the strategic sources sector, India and France signed a joint declaration of intent on cooperation in vital minerals and metals, aimed toward securing provide chains important for superior manufacturing and clear vitality applied sciences.
Economic cooperation was strengthened by an modification to the Double Tax Avoidance Agreement, eradicating boundaries to cross-border funding and enterprise exercise. Both nations additionally expanded collaboration in startup ecosystems, with a letter of intent signed between Hyderabad-based T-Hub and Nord France to assist innovation partnerships.
Scientific and technological cooperation noticed main institutional growth, together with the launch of the Indo-French Centre for AI in Health at AIIMS, New Delhi, and a joint declaration to ascertain an Indo-French Centre for Digital Sciences and Technology. The two nations additionally agreed to arrange a National Centre of Excellence for Skilling in Aeronautics to assist workforce improvement in aerospace manufacturing.
Additional agreements included cooperation between India’s Department of Science and Technology and France’s CNRS on superior supplies analysis, joint work on infectious ailments and world well being analysis, and the institution of an Indo-French Centre for Metabolic Health Sciences.
Both nations renewed their renewable vitality cooperation settlement and signed a letter of intent between India Post and France’s La Poste to expand collaboration in postal providers and logistics.
The agreements had been introduced alongside the launch of the India-France Year of Innovation and the India-France Innovation Network, marking a significant push to strengthen cooperation in rising applied sciences, startups, scientific analysis and industrial improvement.