Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Catherine Colonna, who arrived in India on a three-day visit, met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in New Delhi on Wednesday. The leaders are set to hold talks on bilateral, regional, and international issues of mutual interest.
According to a release by France Diplomacy, the minister will travel to Mumbai on Sept 15 where she will view India's newest submarine built with French assistance at the Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL) shipyard.
The External Affairs Ministry said Colonna’s visit will pave the way for further strengthening of the partnership across trade, defence, climate, migration and mobility, education, and health sectors.
French Foreign Minister, who arrived in India on Wednesday said India and France have strong strategic partnership for the last 25 years and want to bring peace and stability to the world.
"It is my first visit as a minister to India but not my first visit to India. But I wanted to choose India as my first visit as a minister in the Asian zone. So, that's a deliberate choice. The reason is that France and India have had a strong partnership with its strategic partnership for the past 25 years almost. We've achieved a lot. We want to bring some peace and stability to this world," ANI quoted French FM as saying.
Colonna further said that both the country have worked together not only on defence and security but also on global issues and would continue to do more.
"We work together not only on defence security but also on global issues. We'd like to do more and that's the sense of visit. I'm just starting the visit. We'll see some of your (Indian) ministers. Honoured to be received later today by Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Minister told while talking about her visit to India.
(with ANI inputs)
