Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron will visit India towards the end of this year for a meeting of the International Solar Alliance (ISA)—an initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
During two hours of wide-ranging talks with Macron at the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris, Modi invited the French president to visit India. Macron accepted the invitation and said he will visit New Delhi by the end of the year for an international summit on solar power—an area on which France plans closer cooperation with India.
“I will be travelling to India towards the end of this year and convene a meeting of the world solar alliance,” Macron said, referring to the International Solar Alliance, an alliance of more than 120 countries. ISA was jointly launched by Modi and then-French President Francois Hollande in the presence of the then-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 30 November 2015 as a coalition of solar resource-rich countries .
Earlier, Macron greeted Modi with a bear hug in the courtyard of the presidential Elysee Palace when he arrived for the meeting and working lunch. The PM thanked Macron for the warm welcome and congratulated him for the election victory.
The 39-year-old Macron created history last month by becoming the youngest-ever president of France.