Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official visit to France announced for April 9 to 12, 2015.
India established diplomatic relations with France immediately after independence in 1947. There have been a number of bilateral as well as multilateral VVIP visits between India and France. In 1970 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited France to attend the funeral of French President Charles de Gaulle. In 1976 French Prime Minister, Jacques Chirac attended India’s Republic Day Celebrations as the Chief Guest and in 1980 French President Giscard d’Estaing did the honours. The decades of the 1980s and 1990s saw frequent VVIP visits between India and France: PM Indira Gandhi visited France in 1981; President François Mitterrand visited India in 1982 and 1989 (for the Festival of France in India); PM Rajiv Gandhi visited France in 1985 (for the Festival of India in France) and 1989; French Prime Minister Michel Rocard visited India in 1990 (for the Festival of France in India); PM PV Narasimha Rao visited France in 1992 and 1995. In 1998 India and France upgraded their relationship to a Strategic Partnership, encompassing security, space, defence and civil nuclear cooperation sectors. 1998 also saw President Jacques Chirac attend India’s Republic Day celebrations as the Chief Guest and a visit to France by PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The frequency of VVIP visits between India and France remained high during the 2000s, with President K R Narayanan visiting France in 2000 as the first-ever State visit by an Indian President; visits by French PM Jean-Pierre Raffarin to India and by PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to France in 2003. PM Manmohan Singh visited France in 2005 and President Jacques Chirac visited India in 2006. In 2008, President Nicolas Sarkozy visited India as the Chief Guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations and PM Manmohan Singh visited Marseille (France) to attend the India-EU Summit. PM Manmohan Singh was the Guest of Honour on the National Day of France in 2009. President Nicolas Sarkozy visited India in 2010; PM Manmohan Singh visited France to attend the G-20 Summit at Cannes in 2011. The last VVIP visit between India and France was the visit of President Francois Hollande to India in 2013.