PM Modi tours Airbus A380 facility in Toulouse

Is scheduled to visit French space centre CNES, meet former French president Nicolas Sarkozy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday visited the Airbus A380 assembly line facility soon after arriving in Toulouse.

Toulouse houses the Airbus A380 final assembly line - a massive facility spread over a space of 150,000 square metres.

Modi, in Toulouse, is expected to discuss ways of further cooperation, including in transfer of technology and investments.

While there, he will also visit the French space centre CNES or the National Centre for Space Studies, where the two sides will examine further cooperation in the area of space.

Modi is also scheduled to pay homage to thousands of Indian soldiers killed during World War-I at a memorial in the nearby French city of Lille.

On returning to Paris, Modi will attend a reception organised by the Indian community and also call on former French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

A visit to a trade fair is also scheduled before he concludes his three-day visit to France and heads for Germany on the second leg of his three-nation nine-day foreign tour.

On Friday, Prime Minister Modi and French President Francois Hollande met at the Elysee Palace here and discussed issues of mutual interest. This was followed by delegation-level talks between India and France and the issue of a joint statement that listed the signing of over 17 agreements, including one for the direct purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets in fly-away condition, and another for facilitating the early conclusion of techno-commercial talks on the Jaitapur nuclear power plant.

Both sides inked 17 agreements, including in the fields of civil nuclear energy, railways and space, and three Letters of Intent.
 

Modi also went on a boat ride on the Seine River with Hollande and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius after the talks.

He also addressed a meeting of the UNESCO and met with CEOs in two back-to-back sessions that focused on his pet 'Make in India' initiative.

At the UNESCO headquarters, he spoke of his government's commitment to ensure that every citizen, faith, culture and creed has an equal place in society.