Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron held talks and agreed to enhance India-France cooperation in defence, space and civil-nuclear sectors. They also signed a defence industrial roadmap and a defence space partnership agreement. Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra, who briefed the media on Friday, said the defence industrial roadmap will identify opportunities for co-designing, co-development and co-production of military hardware and building defence supply chains. He said the aim is to meet the defence needs of India and France and also to contribute to the security partnership with other countries.Kwatra said the defence space partnership agreement will enable joint work on a space situational awareness programme, which is important for developing military satellites and sharing information on space traffic and debris. He also said that Tata Advanced Systems Ltd and Airbus Helicopters have entered into an industrial partnership for joint production of H125 helicopters in India with a significant indigenous and localisation component. He said Airbus SE will set up an assembly line in India for the helicopters.
The foreign secretary said Modi and Macron also discussed various aspects of civil-nuclear energy cooperation and that there was a very positive and forward leaning conversation on small modular reactors (SMRs). He said the civil-nuclear cooperation has several elements such as localisation, financial viability and cost effectiveness and that the discussions are ongoing.