French President Emmanuel Macron will visit India from 8 to 10 December and discuss with the leadership various issues including strategic and economic ties, France's Ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler said on Wednesday.
He said a nuclear plant in France will go on stream next year, which will be a reference site for India to decide on buying French nuclear reactors for the Jaitapur site in Maharashtra.
Ziegler said French automotive group PSA will start constructing its own car plant near Chennai next year and start production from 2019.
The PSA is partnering with India's CK Birla Group and has announced an investment of around 100 million euros to set up a 1,00,000 units per annum car plant.
As for the status of discussions with the Indian government on the supply of nuclear reactors, Ziegler said it was progressing smoothly.
He said the Indian stipulation of reactor supplier having a running reactor as a reference site was perfectly fine with the French government.
India had earlier announced its plans to buy nuclear power reactors from French company Areva for the Jaitapur project.
Speaking about Indian visitors to France, Ziegler said last year around 600,000 Indians visited France which was higher than the previous year.
He said a consular office has been opened in Chennai and visas will be issued within 48 hours for visits to France.
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