French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to arrive in India tomorrow

The French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, will arrive in India for a two-day visit on Friday, during which, he will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to discuss various aspects of the Indo-French strategic partnership.

He will also meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

On Friday, the first day of his visit, Minister Le Drian will be in Mumbai to boost Indo-French cooperation in the motion pictures and tourism industries. He will preside over the closing ceremony of the Second Indo-French Professional Meetings for the Film and Television Industry.

On this occasion, he will confer the French honour of Knight of the National Order of Merit on renowned producer Ashok Amritraj, Chairman and CEO of the Hyde Park Entertainment Group. The event will be attended by Indian and French celebrities.

On Saturday, the French Minister will start his Delhi programme with the signing ceremony of a three-year contract between Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, headquartered in France, and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of India, to design, build and install its BullSequana supercomputers.

This contract with Atos, under the framework of the National Supercomputing Mission of the Government of India, will contribute to India's ambition to be a leader in High Performance Computing (HPC).

Minister Le Drian will next hold delegation-level talks with his Indian counterpart, Sushma Swaraj, on the wide-ranging aspects of the Indo-French bilateral relation as well as other regional and global issues of mutual interest.

Thereafter, the French Minister will call on Prime Minister Modi before his departure from India.