PM Modi holds bilateral talks with Macron, France agrees to host 10 Indian Startups

India and France seek to ensure AI norms ‘reflect democratic values’

13/02/2025

PARIS, Feb 12: Acknowledging the progress in developing artificial intelligence, India and France will seek to ensure that norms and standards governing their use reflect democratic values, and harness the potential of artificial intelligence for human development and common good, according to the declaration on Artificial Intelligence jointly signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron.
In the joint statement, the two countries recalled their joint commitment to promote safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems to accelerate progress towards the full realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as their efforts to call upon the international community to foster an enabling environment for international cooperation on artificial intelligence capacity-building, emphasize that international law, in particular the Charter of the United Nations, as well as human rights and fundamental freedoms, must be respected, the statement said.
India and France, recalling the 2023 Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of digital technologies, and in view of the upcoming India-France Year of Innovation in 2026 said they will take part in the development of this emerging technology, and commit to ensure its positive impacts on their economies and societies.
Both countries shared the importance of building a framework to ensure a conception, design and development of AI for the public interest, respectful of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in compliance with applicable legal frameworks regarding intellectual property rights, privacy and use of personal data.
As per the joint statement, both countries committed to ensure a conception, design and development of AI and generative AI that does not result in discrimination and inequality nor in the dissemination of misinformation and disinformation, exacerbating bias, the development of free and open resources for all countries, innovators, researchers and citizens, to promote decentralization and avoid concentration of this transformative technology.
It said the two countries will also ensure that economic and market players may ensure safe and trusted development, in particular for training data for their models, authorized uses, transparent rules and control procedures, the development of AI systems for the global good and the benefit of all (including but not limited to global health, sustainable agriculture, education, climate change, disaster management, biodiversity protection, energy, food security among others).
The leaders also said they would ensure the development of generative AI supporting both linguistic and cultural diversities, the building of an efficient and inclusive governance framework for the development of a safe, open, secure, trustworthy, responsible and ethical AI use and solutions, and building upon the AI Action Summit co-chaired by France and India in Paris in February 2025.
India and France intend to pursue and expand their bilateral cooperation, in particular to foster industrial partnerships between their two countries, such as for electronic components or computing capacities, to deepen research partnerships for the development of broad and open and freely reusable large language models trained to support and promote our linguistic diversity.
The bilateral cooperation also ensure support academic research on social consequences of AI development, which will have an impact on all aspects of our societies, encouragement of civil society initiatives on AI, aiming at fostering exchanges among entrepreneurs, researchers and public actors in the field of AI.
It would establish a stronger cooperation regarding child safety online, by developing concrete synergies between ongoing initiatives supported by the two countries and to keep supporting the emergence of digital public infrastructures for AI, by promoting shared objectives and the development of common resources in the field of data, personal data protection, open source tools and capacity building, the statement said.
Modi held bilateral talks with President of France Emmanuel Macron in which they reviewed the progress in the areas of defence, space, civil nuclear corporation, health and people to people corporation.
The discussions resulted in France agreeing to host Indian Startups at the French Start-up Incubator Station F.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, addressing a press conference on Wednesday, informed that PM Modi and Macron held discussions in the plane while travelling to Marseille, "These discussions on board the aircraft on several issues continued upon landing in Marseille, where the two leaders were joined by their larger delegations," Misri added.
"These discussions covered the entire gamut of our deep and diverse strategic partnership. The two leaders reviewed progress in the areas of defence, in the area of space, civil nuclear corporation and in the areas of health as well as people-to-people corporation between the two sides. There is an outcome document that is being circulated for the details you can refer to that." Misri said.
Both countries welcomed the inclusion of 10 Indian startups at the French Startup Incubator Station F. They also welcomed the expanded possibilities for using India's real-time payment system - Unified Payments Interface (UPI) - in France, according to a joint statement.
Vikram Misri emphasised that the bilateral discussions were majorly focused on AI. "Next year 2026 has been agreed as the India- France year of innovation," Misri said.
Additionally, both leaders announced the grand inauguration of the India-France Year of Innovation in New Delhi in March 2026 by launching its Logo.
A letter of Intent between the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA) France to establish the Indo-French Center for the Digital Sciences, according to an MEA release.
Additionally, key outcomes resulted in the field of civil nuclear energy from the discussions as both leaders welcomed the first meeting of the Special Task Force on Civil Nuclear Energy. They also welcomed the signing of a letter of intent on Small Modular Reactor (SMR) and Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) and the Implementing Agreement between India's GCNEP, DAE and France's INSTN, CEA for cooperation in the training and education of nuclear professionals, according to the joint statement.
"In the area of civil nuclear energy cooperation, the two sides have concluded a declaration of intent on collaboration in co-designing, co-developing and co-producing small modular reactors and advanced modular reactors. The two sides will also be cooperating in the field of capacity building of researchers and professionals in this field. Given the coming revolution in AI and the demands that it will make on the energy vector, this particular area of cooperation and development of SMRs and AMRs is a particularly promising vector for India-France cooperation in the future," Misri said.
They also renewed the MoU between the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), India and Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives of France (CAE), France concerning cooperation with the Global Center for Nuclear Energy Partnership (GCNEP).
PM Modi and Macron expressed satisfaction at the ongoing collaboration in the fields of health, culture, tourism, education and people-to-people ties. They committed to further deepen engagement in the Indo-Pacific and in global forums and initiatives, the MEA release stated. (ANI)

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