French President Emmanuel Macron said that India did well as a G20 President and sent across a message of unity and peace to the world on Sunday after attending the third and final session of the G20 Summit. He also held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the end of the third session of the G20 Summit.
Following the bilateral meeting both leaders called for the early finalisation of the defence industrial roadmap in a joint statement.
Macron, however, condemned Russia’s role in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War but lauded India’s diplomatic leadership given the current fragmented global environment.
Speaking on India-France ties and the strategic partnership between both nations, Macron said that the Paris-New Delhi relationship is not limited to bilateral engagement and that the two countries have to work towards resisting the fragmentation of the world.
Reflecting on Indo-French defence ties, Macron did not give specific details but said additional contracts and procurements will follow in months and years to come.
“A very productive lunch meeting with President Emmanuel Macron. We discussed a series of topics and look forward to ensuring India-France relations scale new heights of progress," PM Modi said in a post on X after their meeting.
Macron also backed the G20 Summit’s New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration and said that G20 is not a forum for political discussions when quizzed on whether the paragraphs relating to the Ukraine crisis in the G20 Declaration are a sort of a climbdown by the West.
The New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration did not condemn any party directly for the Ukraine conflict but urged for a “comprehensive, just, and durable peace in Ukraine” while taking part in restoring peace in the region and to “refrain from the threat, or use of force, to seek territorial acquisition”.
The French president said the vast majority of G20 countries condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine but the G20 should not get stuck because of one issue.
Macron highlighted that the Summit Declaration talked about the need to uphold principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of States. The French President also backed reforms in international institutions to reflect the current reality of the world.
