Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today received Mr. Jacques Audibert, Diplomatic Advisor to the French President. Mr. Audibert is on a visit to India for the 26th round of India-France Strategic Dialogue which he co-chaired with National Security Advisor, Shri Ajit Doval on 9 October, 2014.
Mr. Audibert handed over a letter from the French President Mr. Hollande to the Prime Minister, in which President Hollande conveyed his strong commitment to further strengthen France’s Strategic Partnership with India and extended an invitation to the Prime Minister to visit France.
The Prime Minister described France as one of India's most important global partners that has stood with India through both good and difficult moments.
The Prime Minister welcomed closer cooperation between India and France for meeting their many shared security challenges. He called for a comprehensive approach to combating terrorism. The strategy should not only rely on military and intelligence means, but should build a strong international partnership that would generate a social movement to isolate terrorists, including in countries where terrorists finds safe havens, and would also seek to dispel the linkage drawn between religion and terrorism.
The Prime Minister expressed appreciation for the all-round progress in bilateral ties, including in areas of trade and investment, defence, security, space, civil nuclear energy and science and technology. The Prime Minister called for strengthening bilateral engagement in the areas of economic cooperation, tourism and people-to-people contacts.
The Prime Minister thanked Mr. Audibert for President Hollande's invitation and said that he looked forward to visiting France at an early date. The Prime Minister also said that he looked forward to meeting President Hollande at the G-20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia, in November 2014.
