Prime Minister Modi’s visit to France comes on the heels of the two countries celebrating 20 years of their strategic partnership in the year gone by.
He will arrive in Paris on the evening of Feb 10th and attend a dinner hosted by President Emmanuel Macron for all those heads of state and government attending the AI Summit the next day.
This will be the third such summit, the first two being held in the UK and South Korea, Vikram Misri, Foreign Secretary told journalists at a special briefing on Friday.
Modi will co-chair the summit along with Macron and India’s priorities, Misri said, “are the design and development of AI applications in a safe humane responsible and trusted manner. There are issues with the inclusive use and their applications in defence, also of course the possibility of the inevitable technology gap we expect these developments to create and we need to minimise them.”
There will be a Modi-Macron bilateral in Marseille with an address to the India CEOs Forum. Also both leaders will visit the war cemetery holding the graves of Indian soldiers who died in World War I.
Modi and Macron will jointly inaugurate the Indian Consulate General in Marseille, which will help the Indian community living in the south of France, in places like Grenoble and Lyon, Misri said.
The final instalment is the visit by both leaders to Cadarche, the site of the International Thermonuclear Reactor (ITER), a high science project in which India is participating, Misri said. ITER research focuses on fission as opposed to fusion.
To a question on the proposed Jaitapur nuclear power plant to be built with French assistance, Misri said “its a large project with complex financial and technical issues and we had a meeting of the special task force on nuclear enegy.”
He said it is for parliament to decide on amending the Nuclear Liability Act and it would make a difference in the landscape of international nuclear cooperation. As for small modular reactors, these are the subject of discussion between the two countries and “we expect these to progress in coming months.”
US India Convergences
From Marseille it’s off to the second leg of Modi’s visit which is the bilateral with Donald Trump at the White House.
“This is first official working visit to the US since Trump began his second term,” Misri noted. “He will be among the first few world leaders there, it shows the importance of the bilateral relationship and the backing it enjoys in Congress. It is an opportunity to engage the new administration in all areas of interest.”
The agenda will include meetings with members of Congress and the Indian community.
In Trump’s first term, Modi went twice in 2017 and 2019. He was among the first to congratulate him on his victory, and even called him after his inauguration when they agreed to meet soon.
Misri noted that External Affair Minister Jaishankar was present at Trump’s inauguration, he was also there for the Quad meeting, the first plurilatral of the new adminstration and the first bilateral between the two foreign ministers. The defence ministers of the two countries have already spoken as have the respective national security advisers.
A joint statement is expected at the end of the discussions, Misri said, underscoring the close rapport between the two leaders and the convergence in trade, tourism, defence, technology, security of the Indo-Pacific and strong people to people relations.
The Indian origin community numbers over 5 million and 350,000 Indian students are attending US universities.
Deportations
A number of questions focused on the deportation of Indian nationals including the latest flight in a US military aircraft and the restraints put on them.
Misri pointed to Jaishankar’s address in Parliament on Thursday where he said that the use of “SOPs (standard operating procedures) on the use of restraints has been there (in the US) since 2012, the special flight is part of procedures, we are in touch with the Americans about this. US designated it as a national security operation and so a military aircraft was used.”
“Important to note that this proces of deportation is not new,” Misri said. “Mr Jaishankar emphasised this yesterday. It has been going on and he cited figures from 2009 but before that as well those figures are also avaiilable, multiple catgories of people have been returned from US.”
“We can’t confirm anybody unless we have verified their identity,” Misri said, “he or she must be a bonafide citizen of India. We have been in close communication with the US in this matter and as soon as information is provided, we do due diligence and action follows. We have been told that up to 487 presumed Indian citizens with final removal orders with the US authorities, details given with respect to 298.”
Misri quoted Jaishankar as saying that the cancer which is the ecosystem of illegal migration, must be tackled.
