French President Emmanuel Macron never fails to exhibit his friendship with Indian PM Narendra Modi, whenever the duo meet. PM Modi who is on a week long trip to France and Slovakia jointly inaugurated the ‘Bharat Innovates’ 2026 Conclave with Macron in Nice on Sunday. The two later held delegations on atest technology trends surrounding artificial intelligence, start-ups, trade, space, among other issues. Post the event, PM Modi and Emmanuel Macron held a bilateral meeting.
Macron following his meeting with PM Modi shared a 30 sec video adding a unique Bollywood inspired flavor to the diplomatic moment. In the video, the two so called best friends are seen engaging with each other with the energetic track “Aari Aari” from Dhurandhar The Revenge playing in the background. The X post with the hit track was preceded by a post wherein Macron said, “France has all the assets: it lacks neither talent nor energy!”
The song, a contemporary revival of the iconic 2003 indie-pop anthem by Danish-Punjabi group Bombay Rockers, brought a cultural twist to the otherwise formal world of international diplomacy.
In another post Macron shared a selfie with PM Modi captioning it ‘Nice.’
The ‘Bharat innovates’ aims to identify, mentor and showcase promising technology ventures from Higher Education Institutions and Centrally Funded Technical Institutes in India, while connecting selected startups with investors, industry leaders, policymakers, research institutions and technology partners from around the world.
Earlier in the day, both the leaders held a bilateral meeting at Villa Kerylos in Nice. This was the first time the leaders of both the nations met since the elevation of India-France ties to the level of ‘Special Global Strategic Partnership’. They expressed satisfaction at the excellent growth and depth of bilateral defence collaboration across all domains and agreed to further intensify. Bilateral cooperation in the space sector was also praised besides discussion on furthering collaboration in human spaceflight and space situational awareness.
.