French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius is in India on a two-day visit which started on June 30. He met his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Arun Jaitley on Monday. He is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, signalling a relaxation of the visa ban imposed on him by the European Union (EU), following the 2002 Gujarat riots. Fabius will later travel to Mumbai for a meeting with Indian industry leaders. The France President Francois Hollande has invited Modi to visit the country by the end of this year.
Fabius’ visit is the first by a senior representative of an EU country since the Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government came into power. The two sides are also expected to discuss the Jaitapur nuclear power project, under which France is to install six nuclear power plants. The fifth edition of the Indo-French air exercise ‘Garuda’ recently concluded at Air Force Station, Jodhpur, on June 13.
In his meeting with Swaraj, Fabius pushed for a $12-billion deal to sell Rafale combat aircraft to India. The deal to supply 126 Rafale fighter jets manufactured by Dassault Aviation has been under final negotiations since January 2012.