Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a crucial five-day two-nation visit to France and the United States from February 10 to attend the AI Summit in Paris and meet President Donald Trump in Washington.
The visit to the US comes amid a huge controversy over the ill-treatment meted out to 104 Indian illegal immigrants who were brought to India in shackles in an American military aircraft earlier this week. The Opposition has raised a storm over the issue, demanding that the government lodge a strong protest with the US.
Addressing a media briefing on the visit here on Friday, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, PM Modi will visit France from February -10-12 for the AI Action Summit that France is organising.
The PM will co-chair the Summit alongside the French President. The PM will also attend a dinner being hosted by President macron on February 10 evening at the Élysée Palace in honour of visiting heads of government and heads of State. The dinner is also likely to be attended by a large number of CEOs from the tech domain and a number of other distinguished invitees to the summit.
On February 11, the PM will co-chair the AI Action Summit along with President Macron. This is the third such high-level summit that has been held in the very recent past. The first of these was in the UK in 2023, the second one in South Korea in 2024.
The next day, there will be a bilateral meeting between the PM and the French President. The two leaders will also travel to Marseille, the second largest city in France, to inaugurate the Indian consulate. There will also be some other engagements before Mr Modi leaves for the US on an official working visit on February 12-13.
This will be the Indian leader’s first visit to the US after the inauguration of Mr Donald Trump as the 47th President of the country on January 20.
”The fact that the PM has been invited to visit the US within barely three weeks of the new administration taking office shows the importance of the India-US partnership and is also reflective of the bipartisan support that this partnership enjoys in the US,” Mr Misri said.
The PM will be amongst the first few world leaders to visit the US following President’s Trump inauguration during his second term.
President Trump spoke with Mr Modi on January 27 when he discussed immigration and stressed on the importance of India buying more American-made security equipment and fair bilateral trading ties.