In a video message on X, Macron said, “Priya mitra Narendra, mujhe bahut khushi hai, daure ke liye swagat karte, France Bharat ki dosti amar rahe.” (Dear friend Narendra, I am very happy, welcome for the visit, may the friendship between France and India live forever.) He then smiled and added, “I hope it was correct.”
Switching to English, Macron added, “Thank you for your visit. Thank you for our friendship. It was a very fruitful visit. France loves you. We are looking forward to seeing you again soon, in February. Jai Hind.”
Priye mitr @NarendraModi. pic.twitter.com/BXPVenkrXi
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 18, 2026
The gesture came at the end of a visit that covered considerable ground. Modi attended the G7 Summit and held bilateral meetings with several world leaders, including US President Donald Trump.
On June 14, Modi and Macron met at Villa Kerylos in Nice — their first sit-down since India and France elevated ties to a “Special Global Strategic Partnership” earlier this year.
The two leaders agreed to deepen defence cooperation, with a focus on co-design, co-development, and co-production of defence platforms. They also looked at expanding collaboration in human spaceflight, space situational awareness, and private-sector space ventures.
On the sidelines, Modi and Macron joined startups at VivaTech 2026, engaging with innovations across sectors.
At the inauguration of Bharat Innovates 2026, Macron took a moment to congratulate Modi on becoming India’s longest-serving continuously elected Prime Minister.
Macron also made the case for India as a driver of global innovation, pointing to its population size and engineering output. “You have the demographic dividends. A country with 1.4 billion inhabitants, a country that pays for know-how and research, knowledge, and training as many engineers as Europe and the US, comes in more than one million per year. So in every respect, a country with research innovations and frontier models is spearheading global innovation,” he said.
He held up the Chandrayaan-3 mission as a telling example. “With the Chandrayaan 3 mission in July 2023, which allowed the very first moon landing on the south pole of the moon that was led in record time by ISRO with record cost, is a demonstration in terms of strengths, innovation, but also in terms of implementations at the industrial level,” he said.
