January 25, 2016 8:33 PM

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India, France to be partners for greener, safer, more secure, more prosperous future

India and France have expressed their commitment to be partners for a greener, safer, more secure and more prosperous future.<br/><br/>They decided to deepen cooperation in a range of areas from locomotives to satellites, archival excavations to smart cities and solar energy to nuclear power, defence, railway, food safety and public administration.<br/><br/>The two nations inked 14 pacts in different fields after holding delegation level talks with visiting French President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Monday.<br/><br/>Mr Modi said, India and France have signed Inter-Governmental Agreement on purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets.<br/><br/>He hoped that the financial issues pertaining to purchase of Rafale jets will be resolved soon.<br/><br/>The two countries are in negotiations for 36 Rafale fighter jets in fly away conditions since the announcement for the deal was made by Mr Modi in April during his visit to France.<br/><br/>However, the final deal is yet to be sealed as both sides are still negotiating the price which is estimated to be about Rs. 60 thousand crore.<br/><br/>On terrorism, Prime Minister Modi urged the global community to act against those who provide safe havens to terrorists and nurture them financially provide training and infrastructure support.<br/><br/>He said understanding between India and France on counter terrorism underscores determination to combat all forces that sponsor, shelter and support terrorism.<br/><br/>He said the two countries have agreed to scale up the range of counter-terrorism cooperation to tangibly mitigate and reduce the threat of terrorism and extremism.<br/><br/>Mr Modi also invited investors from France to invest in India's programmes such as Make in India.<br/><br/>French President Francois Hollande, in his statement appreciated India's role in COP 21 climate change Summit held in Paris recently.<br/><br/>He said, India and France have decided to prepare a roadmap to tackle all forms of trafficking while ensuring maritime security in the Indian Ocean.<br/><br/>Mr Hollande termed the signing of Inter-Governmental Agreement on Rafale deal as a decisive step.<br/><br/>The President said he and Mr Modi have decided to intensify cooperation against terrorism and established a road map to ensure maritime safety.<br/><br/>Briefing media later, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said India and France will collaborate to construct six nuclear power reactors at Jaitapur.<br/><br/>Replying to a question whether France is happy with India's Civil Nuclear Liability Law in country, he said France had welcomed India's decision to ratify convention on supplementary compensation for nuclear damage.<br/><br/>Replying to another query on the financial aspect of the project, the Foreign Secretary said the project is in its early stages.<br/><br/>He said if the country wants to have 40 per cent of its energy generation capacity coming from non-fossil fuel sources, the nuclear component of the energy mix has to be expanded.<br/><br/>

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