French President Emmanuel Macron to visit India for International Solar Alliance meet

Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron will visit India towards the end of this year for a meeting of the International Solar Alliance an initiative that is the brain child of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During two hours of wide-ranging talks with Macron at the presidential Elysee Palace, Modi invited the French president to visit India.

Macron accepted the invitation and said he will visit New Delhi by the end of the year for an international summit on solar power an area on which France plans closer cooperation with India.

"I will be travelling to India towards the end of this year and convene a meeting of the world solar alliance," Macron said, referring to the International Solar Alliance an alliance of more than 120 countries.

ISA was launched in November 30, 2015, as a coalition of solar resource rich countries jointly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then French President Francois Hollande in the presence of the then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Earlier, Macron greeted Prime Minister Modi with a bear hug in the courtyard of the presidential Elysee Palace when he arrived for the meeting and working lunch.

The Prime Minister thanked President Macron for the warm welcome and congratulated him for the election victory. 39-year-old Macron created history last month by becoming the youngest president of France.