NEW DELHI: The Rafale deal was not on the official agenda during the two-day official visit of French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, who left for France on Saturday after a trip to Mumbai and Delhi.
Le Drian arrived in New Delhi on Friday morning on his 16th official visit and left immediately for Mumbai, where he where met delegates attending the second meeting of the Indo-French film and television industry professionals, and announced the institution of a fund supporting scriptwriting for Indo-French co-productions.
He also met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. He returned to Delhi late in the evening. On Saturday, he witnessed the signing of an agreement between Atos, a European IT services corporation, and the Center for Development of Advanced Computing at a Delhi hotel, where he also held a meeting with Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The deal to procure supercomputers worth Rs 4,500 crores from Atos would clear the way for the IT giant to deploy its BullSequana supercomputers in India, which would help the National Supercomputing Mission with weather forecasting, drug discovery and data mining.
Le Drian then met external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who welcomed the strengthening of bilateral ties in all spheres, including defence, space, counterterrorism, and civil nuclear cooperation.