Accompanied by his wife, seven ministers and an impressive delegation of bosses (AREVA, Dassault Aviation, EADS, Thalès, Alstom...) representing in particular the cream of French industry: [the nuclear and armaments industries], President Sarkozy began on 4 December a four-day visit to India to reinforce the strategic and commercial partnership between France and India inaugurated in 1998 by President Chirac.

This visit occurs between that of US President Barack Obama and that of the Chinese PM Wen Jiabao. It marks France’s “recognition” of India as the “second motor of world growth” after China, as they say in the President’s office.

France is India’s fifth commercial partner in Europe, with an exchange of 5.36 billion euros in goods and services.
This trip aims chiefly at advancing discussions on the building, by the French nuclear group AREVA, or two and then four power plants of the EPR type, and at obtaining an agreement for the modernising, by the industrial giant Thalès, of 51 Mirage 2000 combat aircraft of the Indian Air Force.

Nevertheless, according to India’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, “no defense contract should be signed during the visit since these are negotiations independent of the presidential visit.”

According to New Delhi, “active commercial negotiations” are under way between Areva and the NPC (Nuclear Power Corporation) to find a “framework agreement” for the construction of the first two reactors in the west of the country, which would be “a first” for India.

In the matter of defense provisions, France has responded to an appeal launched by India in 2007 for the delivery in 2011 of 126 combat planes, a contract of about 9 billion euros, by proposing the Rafale aircraft made by Dassault – which Paris has so far never succeeded in exporting.

The visit began on Sunday morning at India’s Space Institute in Bangalore, an economic and scientific hub of world importance, considered to be India’s Silicon Valley.

In his arrival speech, Nicolas Sarkozy declared that France would call for India to be granted a permanent seat on the UN Security Council – and that the six EPR reactors that France proposed to sell would provide India with "10 000 megawatts of non-polluting energy".

On 5 December the presidential couple visited the Taj Mahal (Agra) a top tourist attraction which Sarkozy had visited during his first visit to India in 2008 alone and rapidly, something that the Indians had appreciated with moderation.

On 6 December in New Delhi, he talked with the Indian PM Manmohan Singh, and met also with President Pratibha Patil and with the French community there. On the same day, the partnership agreement for building two EPR was concluded.

The next day in Mumbai (Bombay) he was to lead a ceremony of homage to the victims of the terrorist attacks which caused 166 deaths in November 2008.

[Based on reports from AFP and the special envoy of the BFMTV]