Since the COVID-19 outbreak, it is the first time that French defence minister Florence Parly will make a trip to abroad. She will officially visit to attend the Rafale fighter jet’s induction ceremony on 10 September. The ceremony will take place in Ambala air force station.
During the visit, she will meet her Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. It aims to strengthen France’s “forward-looking defence cooperation with India, its foremost Asian strategic partner” according to a statement issued by the French embassy on Wednesday.
“Their broad-ranging talks will cover, among others, industrial and technological partnership in line with the Make in India programme, operational defence cooperation, particularly maritime security in the Indo-Pacific, modalities of continuing the armed forces’ joint exercises in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, counter-terrorism cooperation, as well as major regional and international strategic issues,” the statement said.
Parly will be paying a floral tribute to India’s soldiers at the National War Memorial in Delhi.
France is one of India’s closest partners in the fields of defence and security. Recently, France provided India 120 ventilators and 50,000 test kits to counter the Covid-19 pandemic. It also announced it will provide financial aid of up to 200 million euros to support vulnerable sections of society affected by the pandemic.
