A high-level team from France is now in Delhi to take forward discussions on the India-France Year of Innovation next year, covering cyber security and green tech, as also the summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to be held next February in Delhi.
French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to attend and the two sides will seek to build on the goals they have set: promoting the use of safe, secure and internationally regulated AI to realise the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
India aims to shape the global discourse on responsible AI, while France brings its own domestic experience with digital regulation and its broader role in EU tech policy.
Their collaboration on this front signals a shared ambition to influence global norms in areas where major powers remain divided, especially on data sovereignty, algorithmic accountability, and ethical AI.
But the visit of Anne-Marie Descôtes, Secretary General of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, was also an opportunity to review the broader relationship with Foreign Secretary Vikam Misri.
They co-chaired the Second Meeting of the India-France Special Task Force on Civil Nuclear Energy, where both sides reaffirmed their interest in advancing work on Small and Advanced Modular Reactors (SMRs and AMRs), a next-generation technology that is central to India’s clean energy transition.
Discussions also covered the Horizon 2047 Roadmap, the Indo-Pacific strategy, and the Defence Industrial Roadmap.
Earlier this month, India and France held the 17th meeting of their Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism in Paris, where they agreed to expand joint efforts to tackle cyber threats, online radicalisation, and misuse of emerging technologies by extremist groups.
In the political consultations, Descôtes and Misri discussed how both countries could respond to fast-evolving global challenges, from the war in Ukraine and the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, to the spread of AI-driven misinformation and the use of digital tools by terrorist networks.
France has set an ambitious goal of hosting 30,000 Indian students by 2030, a point Descôtes underscored during a stop over at the Alliance Française de Delhi and Campus France.
