French President Emmanuel Macron surprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a farewell message in Hindi at the conclusion of the Prime Minister’s visit to France, underscoring the warmth of the India-France relationship.
In a video message, Macron spoke in Hindi, saying, “Priy mitra Narendra, mujhe bahut khushi hai, daure ke liye swagat karte, France Bharat ki dosti amar rahe.” After delivering the message, he added with a smile, “I hope it was correct (Dear friend Narendra, I am very happy, welcome for the visit, may the friendship between France and India live forever.)”
Macron then continued in English, saying, “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.”
Earlier, during the inauguration of Bharat Innovates 2026, President Macron formally congratulated Prime Minister Modi on becoming India’s longest-serving continuously elected Prime Minister.
Praising the achievement, Macron said the milestone reflected both the Prime Minister’s leadership and the strength of Indian democracy. “It says a lot about your determined action, the strengths of your country, and it’s wonderful,” he remarked during the event.
On June 10, 2026, Prime Minister Modi completed 4,399 days of continuous service as an elected Prime Minister, surpassing the previous record of 4,398 days held by India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, between 1952 and 1964. The Union Cabinet formally recognised the achievement through a resolution. The milestone reflects Modi’s three consecutive national mandates and 12 years of leadership under the NDA government.
Macron also reaffirmed France’s confidence in India’s ability to drive global innovation. He described India’s demographic dividend as a major strength and highlighted the country’s vast talent pool.
“So why is it obvious for France to believe in that capacity to innovate in India? Well, I would say to put it bluntly, you have the demographic dividends. What does it mean? So 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,” Macron said.
The French President pointed to India’s achievements in space exploration, particularly the Chandrayaan-3 mission, as evidence of the country’s technological capabilities.
“If I only had to mention the one example of what you can do, airspace is the perfect example,” Macron said.
He praised the mission for achieving the first-ever landing near the Moon’s south pole in record time and at a comparatively low cost.
“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 added.
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