New Delhi: India and France on Tuesday announced a sweeping expansion of bilateral cooperation across defence, advanced technologies, innovation, critical minerals, taxation and scientific research, alongside elevating their relationship to a Special Global Strategic Partnership during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to India.
The two countries formally upgraded their strategic ties and agreed to establish an annual dialogue between their foreign ministers to review implementation of the elevated partnership and the Horizon 2047 roadmap, creating a structured mechanism to monitor long-term cooperation.
A major defence milestone was the inauguration of the H125 helicopter final assembly line at Vemagal in Karnataka, strengthening India’s indigenous defence manufacturing capability. India and France also renewed their defence cooperation agreement and announced a joint venture between Bharat Electronics Limited and Safran to produce HAMMER precision-guided missiles in India, significantly expanding defence industrial collaboration.
Both sides agreed to deepen military-to-military engagement through reciprocal deployment of officers at Indian Army and French Land Forces establishments, and established a Joint Advanced Technology Development Group to accelerate cooperation in critical and emerging defence technologies.
In the strategic resources sector, India and France signed a joint declaration of intent on cooperation in critical minerals and metals, aimed at securing supply chains essential for advanced manufacturing and clean energy technologies.
Economic cooperation was strengthened through an amendment to the Double Tax Avoidance Agreement, removing barriers to cross-border investment and business activity. Both countries also expanded collaboration in startup ecosystems, with a letter of intent signed between Hyderabad-based T-Hub and Nord France to support innovation partnerships.
Scientific and technological cooperation saw major institutional expansion, including the launch of the Indo-French Centre for AI in Health at AIIMS, New Delhi, and a joint declaration to establish an Indo-French Centre for Digital Sciences and Technology. The two countries also agreed to set up a National Centre of Excellence for Skilling in Aeronautics to support workforce development in aerospace manufacturing.
Additional agreements included cooperation between India’s Department of Science and Technology and France’s CNRS on advanced materials research, joint work on infectious diseases and global health research, and the establishment of an Indo-French Centre for Metabolic Health Sciences.
Both countries renewed their renewable energy cooperation agreement and signed a letter of intent between India Post and France’s La Poste to expand collaboration in postal services and logistics.
The agreements were announced alongside the launch of the India-France Year of Innovation and the India-France Innovation Network, marking a major push to strengthen cooperation in emerging technologies, startups, scientific research and industrial development.
