G7 Summit: PM Modi meets French President Macron, British PM Sunak
It is Prime Minister Modi's first foreign trip in his third term
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday (June 14) to discuss ways further to strengthen bilateral ties and exchange views on global issues.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the G7 summit at a southern resort town of Italy. It is Prime Minister Modi's first foreign trip after assuming office for a third time this month. The two leaders last met in January when the French President visited India to attend the 75th Republic Day of India.
During their last meeting, the two leaders reaffirmed their shared vision for bilateral cooperation and international partnership, outlined in Horizon 2047 and other documents from the July 2023 Summit.
Horizon 2047 Roadmap sets an ambitious and broad-ranging course for the bilateral relationship for 2047, the centenary year of India’s independence.
Modi meets British PM Sunak
PM Modi also met his British counterpart Rishi Sunak and is believed to have discussed bilateral relations and issues of common interests. Sunak and Modi last met in person at the G20 Summit in New Delhi last September, when they had agreed to accelerate the FTA talks with the hope of signing off before India's general election.
However, the trade talks are now expected to resume only after a new UK government is elected on July 4.
The India-UK FTA negotiations, which opened in January 2022, are aimed at significantly enhancing bilateral trade – currently worth around 38.1 billion pounds a year as per official statistics from earlier this year.
(With agency inputs)