India will get an opportunity to boost ties with France in 2018, as French President Emmanuel Macron is set to arrive in the South Asian country early next year.
French Ambassador to New Delhi Alexandre Ziegler has confirmed the news, saying that the main aim of the president’s upcoming visit is to strengthen bilateral co-operation in defence and clean energy sectors. Although the envoy didn’t confirm the date of the visit, he told the Indian media that Macron’s trip to New Delhi would coincide with the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Summit. As per previous plan, President Macron was to travel to India in December to attend the meeting of the ISA, an initiative which is the brainchild of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, New Delhi deferred the founding ceremony of the Alliance due to some technical problems.
The French diplomat expressed hope that the ISA would give a big boost to the bi-annual global investor conference – RE-Invest 2017, as India was trying to play a leading role in green energy sector. During his stay in India, President Macron will discuss different aspects of bilateral ties with PM Modi. Later, they will adopt the legal instrument for the ISA in an attempt to promote a vibrant market for solar power. The Indian premier’s initiative has already secured the backing of around 121 countries that are rich in solar radiation to tackle energy issues.

Meanwhile, the diplomat said that France, which is India’s 9th largest investment partner, was ready to bolster bilateral co-operation in other important sectors, like defence, space, nuclear, urban development and railways. Ziegler expressed Paris’ eagerness to strengthen energy co-operation just a day after Indian Power Minister R K Singh said that New Delhi would require USD 100 billion to achieve the target of producing 175GW renewable energy. “Our per capita consumption of energy is about one-sixth of Europe and one-twelfth of the US. Energy consumption is not going to double or triple, but it will be over four times. That is how the rate of growth of energy consumption will be in India,” stressed Singh.
It is expected that President Macron will explore the huge potential of the Indian energy sector and encourage French companies to invest more in the South Asian country. He knows that the US and several other European countries, too, are interested in investing in India that has maintained a steady economic growth for the last few years.

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Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das