French President Emmanuel Macron may visit India in first half of 2023

Preparations for an expected visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to India, situation arising out of Ukraine conflict and ways to expand bilateral defence cooperation figured prominently during a fresh round of strategic dialogue between two sides on Thursday, people familiar with matter said.

two sides are working on dates for Macron's visit even as it emerged that French fighter Rafale was much ahe of American F/A-18 Super Hornet in multi-billion dollar contract to supply 26 deck-based jets to Indian Navy.

re was a report in French media on Thursday indicating that deal could be inked during Macron's visit to India. Last year, Indian Navy carried out detailed evaluation of two jets and submitted a report to defence ministry for a final decision.

" two sides are exploring a visit by President Macron to India around March. But dates are yet to be finalised," said one of people cited above, ding it figured in 'strategic dialogue'.

36th round of India-France strategic dialogue co-chaired by NSA Ajit Doval and Emmanuel Bonne, Diplomatic visor to French President, covered all aspects of Indo-French strategic partnership, defence and security cooperation and counter-terrorism cooperation among ors.

Bonne also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

"During strategic dialogue and meetings, India and France reiterated ir commitment to take forward ir strategic partnership to ensure peace, stability and security in Indo-Pacific based on common beliefs in rules-based international order and strategic autonomy," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

It said two sides discussed global security environment, expanding scope of defence cooperation to include co-development of futuristic technologies in line with India's priorities of Make in India and 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' initiative.

MEA said agenda included discussions on situation in Afghanistan, Africa, South East Asia, Eurasia and cooperation in areas of nuclear energy, space and cyber domains.

"Both sides also agreed to strengn bilateral defence and security cooperation including in South West Indian Ocean Region and Indo-Pacific and pursuit of new initiatives in critical and emerging technologies," MEA said.

"Both sides reiterated that in view of emerging uncertainties and volatile global security environment, re was a need for closer cooperation between India and France, including in UNSC and or multilateral forums," it said.

A French reout said agenda of dialogue covered all aspects of Indo-French strategic partnership including defence and security cooperation, major international and regional issues, including war in Ukraine, and cooperation in Indo-Pacific.

"On each topic, two sides agreed to raise level of ambition of our cooperation even furr with goal of accelerating efforts towards strategic autonomy," it said.

Besides Modi and Jaishankar, Bonne also called on India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant.

"He stressed France's full support for India's G20 presidency and conveyed President Macron's message that Indo-French cooperation would be key to tackling global challenges in 2023," it said.

"In this respect, Mr Bonne also praised excellent cooperation with India at United Nations Security Council over past two years, and reiterated France's support for a permanent UNSC seat for India," it ded.

On Navy's proposed procurement of deck-based jets, sources said Rafale M jet is front-runner for deal.

Last year, Navy shortlisted Boeing's F/A-18E Super Hornet and Rafale M aircraft produced by French aerospace major Dassault Aviation for procurement.