'Cooperative AI' on the table as Modi, Macron aim to deepen ties

Both sides announce 13 outcomes, including setting up high-level mechanism to double bilateral trade in 5 years

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron held bilateral talks in Nice on Sunday, when they committed themselves to deepening bilateral ties between the two countries across an array of sectors, including defence, emerging technology, and civil nuclear energy. 

The two sides announced 13 outcomes, including setting up a high-level mechanism to double bilateral trade in five years and establish an economic security dialogue. The bilateral trade between India and France has more than doubled in the last decade to $15.81 billion in 2025-26. 

In the defence sector, the two leaders said the focus of collaboration should be on co-design, co-development and co-production of defence platforms and advanced technologies. They also discussed ways to expand private sector collaboration in space. In civil nuclear energy, they noted that India’s SHANTI Act creates new opportunities for collaboration, including on small and advanced modular reactors. 

Earlier in the day, Modi and Macron inaugurated the ‘Bharat Innovates’ event in Nice. Macron called for deeper cooperation with India on artificial intelligence to build a cooperative AI. 

The French President’s comment came amid the United States ordering AI firm Anthropic to block the access of foreign nationals to its newly released software, citing concerns on national security. He said France was looking at cooperation with India in small modular reactors (SMRs) and advanced modular reactors (AMRs). 

In his speech at the ‘Bharat Innovates’ event, Modi spoke of his government’s reform initiatives in high technology, defence and innovation. “India’s ‘reform express’ will not stop, it will continue to run,” he said. 

The event is seeing participation from 120 startups across 13 critical technology pillars. Over 350 top investors and venture capitalists from across the world are participating in the event, the government said. 

Nice is the hub of France’s research and innovation ecosystem. 

Macron visited India this year from February 17 to 19, when he participated in the “Artificial Intelligence Impact Summit” 2026. 

During the visit, Modi and Macron jointly inaugurated the 2026 India-France Year of Innovation in Mumbai. In February last year, Modi visited France and co-chaired, along with Macron, the AI Action Summit in Paris. 

Defence partnership between India and France has an increasing Atmanirbharata element to it. France has supplied the P-75 Scorpenes, of which the sixth and last submarine was commissioned in the Indian Navy in January last year. On April 28, 2025, the two sides agreed in India procuring 26 Rafale-M aircraft for the Indian Navy, including transfer of technology for integrating indigenous weapons in India. In November 2025, Modi inaugurated the Safran Aircraft Engine Services India (SAESI) facility at the GMR Aerospace and Industrial Park near Hyderabad airport. 

Modi and Macron inaugurated H125 helicopter final assembly line at Vemagal, Karnataka, on February 17. 

In the European Union, France is India’s third-largest trading partner, after the Netherlands and Germany. For the year 2025-26, Indian exports to France amounted to $7.1 billion. Bilateral trade between India and France has more than doubled in the last decade to $15.81 billion in 2025-26.

 

PM to visit Slovakia on Monday

 

From Nice, the Prime Minister is scheduled to visit Bratislava on Monday. 

India and Slovakia are expected to sign agreements in defence, digital and emerging technologies, civil nuclear energy, and mobility of skilled professionals, apart from manufacturing deals. 

This is the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, and the creation of Slovakia as an independent country. Over the past decade, Slovakia has become an important partner for Indian manufacturing. Modi’s visit to Slovakia comes barely weeks after he visited the Nordic countries and Italy, and it reflects New Delhi’s strategic decision to reach out not only to Brussels, Berlin and Paris, but to other smaller European countries. Slovakia helped in the evacuation of Indian students from Ukraine in 2022, with 1,113 of them exiting through Slovakia. 

According to the Slovak Statistical Office data, in 2024, bilateral trade reached an all-time high of $1.3 billion, crossing the $1 billion mark for the first time. 

In 2025, bilateral trade increased further to $1.8 billion, experiencing annual growth of 28 per cent, and driven by Indian exports of $1.52 billion. 

Indian and Slovakian companies have tied up in the manufacturing sector, especially automobiles and railway freight wagons.

 

Tata Motors’ Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Tata AutoComp Systems, CK Birla Group, Amara Raja Energy & Mobility Ltd, Dhoot Transmission, the Samvardhana Motherson group, and the Alicon group are some of the major Indian manufacturing companies in Slovakia. 

Tatravagonka a.s., Poprad, Slovakian manufacturer of rail freight cars and bogies, acquired a 26 per cent stake in the Jupiter group, Kolkata, in 2015. The two sides are seeking to deepen their defence cooperation with jointly manufacturing artillery and armoured systems. Grand Power Ltd, a Slovak company manufacturing firearms, is setting up a subsidiary Grand Power India, close to Coimbatore. 

There are 11,000 Indians working in Slovakia, with a considerable increase in their number over the past five years. They are in automotive companies such as Jaguar Land Rover, Stellantis, Lear Corporation Seating Slovakia s.r.o., Vertiv Slovakia and Motherson Automotive systems.