French Minister’s visit to India

H.E. Ms Florence Parly, Minister for the Armed Forces of France attends Rafale induction ceremony at AFS Ambala and further strengthens Indo-French defence relations.

H.E. Ms Florence Parly, Minister for the Armed Forces of France, undertook an official visit on 10th September 2020, to India, where she attended the official induction ceremony of the first batch of the Rafale omnirole fighter aircraft by the Indian Air Force at AFS Ambala.

This marked Minister Parly’s third official visit to India since 2017 and one of her very first official trips since the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic.

On this occasion, Minister Parly strengthened France’s forward-looking defence cooperation with India, its foremost Asian strategic partner.
The Minister thus met her counterpart, Shri Rajnath Singh, and Shri Ajit Doval, National Security Adviser. Their broad-ranging talks covered, 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.

These talks furthered President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to deepen and expand the Indo-French partnership, with strategic autonomy and the defence of a multipolar order as its cornerstones.

At AFS Ambala, where she was received by the Hon’ble Raksha Mantri, Shri Rajnath Singh, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, and the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshall RKS Bhadauria, the French Minister was accompanied, among others, by top executives from Dassault Aviation, Thales Group, Safran, and MBDA, representing the French defence majors that have been partnering with many Indian companies as part of the Rafale agreement.

Source: Embassy of France, India