PM Modi holds talks with British counterpart Rishi Sunak & French President Emmanuel Macron

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met his British counterpart Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Bari, Italy.

Modi is is believed to have discussed bilateral relations and issues of common interests with Sunak. They last met in person at the G20 Summit in New Delhi last September, when they had agreed to accelerate the FTA talks with the hope of signing off before India's general election.

However, the trade talks are now expected to resume only after a new UK government is elected on July 4.

The India-UK FTA negotiations, which opened in January 2022, are aimed at significantly enhancing bilateral trade – currently worth around 38.1 billion pounds a year as per official statistics from earlier this year.

Strategic partnership including in areas of defence, nuclear and space were top of the agenda when Modi met Macron.

"The two leaders discussed ways to further strengthen the partnership including in areas of defence, nuclear, space, education, climate action, digital public infrastructure, critical technologies, connectivity and culture. They also exchanged views on key global and regional issues," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal posted on X.

The two leaders last met in January when the French President visited India to attend the 75th Republic Day of India.

During their last meeting, the two leaders reaffirmed their shared vision for bilateral cooperation and international partnership, outlined in Horizon 2047 and other documents from the July 2023 Summit.

Horizon 2047 Roadmap sets an ambitious and broad-ranging course for the bilateral relationship for 2047, the centenary year of India’s independence.

Modi is attending the 50th G7 Summit on the invitation of Italian President Georgia Meloni and will address an Outreach session on Artificial Intelligence, Energy, Africa and the Mediterranean alongside leaders of other invited countries and Pope Francis.

(With inputs from PTI)