NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi will arrive in France Monday next week for a two-day visit during which he will co-chair the AI summit being hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and also have a bilateral meeting with the president to advance India-France strategic partnership.
Diplomatic sources said the two countries are likely to finalise a bilateral road map for cooperation in AI and also strengthen defence and nuclear cooperation, with an announcement likely about collaboration on small modular reactors. Some progress is also expected in negotiations for procurement of 26 Rafale-M aircraft by India.
Modi will begin his visit by attending a dinner that is being hosted by President Macron at the Elysee Palace in honour of visiting Heads of Government and Heads of State. Foreign secretary Vikram Misri said the dinner is also likely to be attended by a large number of CEOs from the tech domain and a number of other distinguished invitees to the summit. The leaders will also visit Marseille where they will visit a war cemetery and inaugurate the new Indian consulate.
With France focused on reaching a consensus on inclusive and sustainable uses of AI, India said it expects a joint declaration from the summit.
“We are interested in AI applications that are designed, developed, deployed, and used in a safe, humane, responsible, and trustworthy manner. There are, of course, issues related to the inclusive use and application and deployment of AI. And of course, on the possible, in a sense, inevitable technology gap that we expect these kinds of developments to create and which it is our effort to try and minimize as much as possible,” said Misri.
Modi and Macron will also travel to Cadarache, the site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which is a “high science project” in which India is a partner along with a few other countries.
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