Want our youth to recognise Indo-French ties: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the youth from either country should get to know themselves better in order to strengthen Indo-French ties.

At a joint press meet, Prime Minister Modi stressed on the importance of people-to-people relationship for furthering in the bilateral relations between India and France.

"We believe that the most important dimension for the bright future of our bilateral relations is our people-to-people relationship. We want our (India and France) youth to know each other's countries, understand and work so that thousands of ambassadors are ready for our relations and in this direction we have signed two agreements today," he said.

"A compromise was made to recognise one another's education abilities and secondly, our migration and mobility partnership. These two agreements will prepare the framework of close relations among our people and our youth," Prime Minister Modi explained.

Prime Minister Modi emphasised that India and France were not the only leaders of two strong independent countries and two diverse democracies, but the successors of rich and capable heritage.

He also laid importance on the strategic partnership between the two countries, which has crossed 20 years old.

"Although our strategic partnership is 20 years old, the spiritual partnership of our countries and our civilizations is centuries long", Prime Minister Modi said.

The Prime Minister also pointed out the close cooperation of India and France in key sectors.

"The history of bilateral cooperation between India and France is very long in terms of defence, security, space and high technology. There is a bipartisan agreement about bilateral relations between the two countries," Prime Minister Modi stated.

Commenting on the defence cooperation between the two countries, the Prime Minister said, "Today the agreement of reciprocal logistics support between our armies is considered a golden step in the history of our close defense cooperation."

Prime Minister Modi also welcomed France to invest in India under the 'Make in India' initiative.

He finally concluded by saying that for the sake of Earth's future, India and France were committed to the success of the International Solar Conference (ISA).

Prime Minister Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron will co-chair the International Solar Conference (ISA) on Sunday.

The ISA, an alliance of more than 121 countries, was initiated by Prime Minister Modi in January 2016. The primary objective of the alliance is to work for efficient exploitation of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.