French President Chirac arrives in Delhi
New
Delhi: French president Jacques Chirac today arrived
in New Delhi on his two-day visit to the country. Chirac
is being accompanied by his wife and a high-powered delegation,
which includes ministers and chief executives of several
top French companies. Upon arrival at the Palam Airport,
the French President was received by Science and Technology
Minister Kapil Sibal and Anand Sharma, Minister of State,
Ministry of External Affairs. Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi
was also present during the occasion along with several
other officials. Chirac will spend the day interacting with
French CEOs based in India, visit the French Embassy in
the capital where he will address the French community before
proceeding to attend a dinner hosted in his honour by Prime
Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
On
Monday, Chirac will be accorded a formal reception in the
forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan (the President's official
residence), wherehe will be received by President A.P.J.Abdul
Kalam and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and members
of the Union Cabinet. After inspecting a guard of honour,
the French President will proceed to Raj Ghat to offer his
homage to Father of Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Informed sources
said that thereafter he would hold talks with Vice-President
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Congress party president Sonia
Gandhi. These meetings will be followed by one-to-one talks
between Chirac and Prime Minister Singh and delegation-level
talks at Hyderabad House.
Several agreements and memoranda of understanding reflecting
the wide range of Indo-French collaboration are expected
to be signed during the delegation-level talks. These include
a declaration on development of nuclear energy for peaceful
purposes; an Agreement on defence cooperation and an MoU
on Tourism cooperation. ANTRIX (commercial arm of ISRO)
will sign a contract with EADS Astrium to jointly build
a satellite for Eutelsat. MoUs on cooperation between IIM
Ahmedabad and ESSEC (Icole Supirieure des Sciences Iconomiques
et Commerciales) and between BEE (Bureau of Energy Efficiency),
Ministry of Power and AEDEME (Agence de l' Environnement
et de la Mantrise de l' Energie) are also expected to be
signed. India and France have a strategic partnership that
was initiated in January 1998 during the visit of President
Chirac to India. France is an important trade and investment
partner of India. The two sides have agreed to make efforts
to double the bilateral trade in five years from the present
level of 3.5 billion. French FDI is about 760 million dollars
from 1991 to date, of a total amount approved of 1.74 billion
dollars. Indo-French cooperation ranges from high-technology
areas like space, nuclear energy and defence to areas such
as chemicals, infrastructure and food processing. The talks
will be followed by a joint press conference and a working
lunch. President Chirac will then deliver a keynote address
at Vigyan Bhavan on the India-France Economic Partnership.
Simultaneously, French CEOs will interact with their Indian
counterparts. Chirac will then meet with the Leader of Opposition
and senior BJP leader LK Advani before proceeding with his
wife to meet President Kalam. He will then depart from India.
The French President and his wife Bernadette are being accompanied
by French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, Defence
Minister Michele Alliot, Economy, Finance and Industry Thierry
Breton, Minister of State for Foreign Trade Christine Lagarde
and Minister of State for Tourism Leon Bertrand, besides
30 senior French CEOs. Chirac' s visit is a follow-up to
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to France in September
2005, which reflected the commitment of both countries to
"vigorously pursue their strategic partnership" by intensifying
bilateral cooperation. This will be President Chirac's third
visit to India. He came here as Prime Minister in 1976 and
again as President in January 1998. On both occasions, he
was the chief guest at the Republic Day Parade.
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