New Delhi, Oct 20(ANI): India and France have resolved to reinforce their bilateral ties on a progressive note and also review international issues of common interest.
This was the essence of the joint statement issued by External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna after his meeting with visiting France Foreign Minister Alian Juppe at New Delhi today.
Addressing the joint news conference, Krishna said that during the meeting, they reaffirmed their interest in enhancing their collaboration on different issues vis-?-vis science and technology.
"We reviewed our cooperation in defence, space and civil nuclear energy, which are important pillars of our bilateral relations," Krishna said.
Both the countries have also successfully launched a satellite, Megha-Tropiques, on October 12, with an objective to study weather and climate in the tropical regions of the world.
India and France had also signed an agreement on the development and peaceful use of nuclear power plants.
Krishna further stated that at the meeting, both of them had reviewed the progress of their joint efforts against piracy and terrorism.
Recently, the armies of India and France staged their first joint exercise named 'Shakti' to share expertise to combat terrorism and insurgency operations.
"We have had useful interactions on the fight against piracy. We reiterated our commitments to continue to cooperate in the fight against terrorism," Krishna said.
He also said that as the G20 summit is scheduled early next month at Cannes in France, both the countries would be looking to discuss the international economic crisis at this summit.
On his part, Juppe said that France and Germany would spearhead the modes to tackle the crisis of euro zone and expressed hopes of finding a solution to it.
"The initiative that France and Germany and the partners in the euro zone are taking this weekend to converge this euro zone, the stability of which is essential for us, members of the European Union. But also for a large part of the world and I am completely confident on the capacity of our head of states and governments to find a sustainable and global agreements during this weekend in Brussels meeting," Juppe said.
Both the Foreign Ministers also agreed to work together to encourage the number of student exchange programmes.
In December 2010, France and India had set a target of increasing bilateral trade to 12 billion by 2012. (ANI)
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