PM Modi's France, UAE Visits High On Substantive Outcomes, Not Just Optics: Puri

The BJP on Sunday termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visits to France and the UAE "successful" and said they were not just "high on optics" but also "high on substantive outcomes".
    
Modi returned on Saturday after "successful" visits to France and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  
    
"The prime minister's visits to France and the UAE were successful and outcome positive," Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri told reporters at the BJP headquarters.
    
It has been the “India flavour and India story” in many parts of the world since the prime minister embarked on the official visit to the US, Australia, Egypt, France, the UAE, and Japan starting in May, he said.
    
"Certainly, all of these visits have very positive outcomes in both bilateral and multilateral arena,” he said.
    
"In terms of both the sheer momentum of our exchanges with the outside world and also the kind of events which are planned for the coming weeks leading up to the G20 summit, I think it is India flavour and India story in many parts of the world,” Puri added.
    
Speaking about the prime minister's visit to France, the minister said, "This was not just a visit which was high on optics, but it was also high on substantive outcomes. More than that it also provides the grounds for cooperation in the next 25 years."
    
India and France signed a slew of agreements covering sectors as diverse as space, civil aviation, museology, petroleum, and business, besides unveiling a roadmap for partnership over the next 25 years titled 'Horizon 2047'.
    
In France, the prime minister was the Guest of Honour at the Bastille Day Parade, which saw the participation of tri-service Indian armed forces contingent led by a military band to mark the 25th anniversary of the India-France Strategic Partnership.
    
Modi was also conferred the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, France's highest civilian and military honour, by French President Emmanuel Macron.   
    
With this, Modi joined the ranks of other prominent world leaders such as the former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela, King Charles - the then Prince of Wales, former Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former Secretary General of the United Nations, among others. He also became the first Indian premier to have been conferred with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.
    
“Recently some other top international awards and honours from various countries were bestowed on the prime minister which include the Order of Nile by Egypt and Companion of Order, highest honour of Fiji,” Puri said, 
    
Listing other honours and awards conferred on Modi, the housing and urban affairs minister said they bear the "testimony” of a “very popularity rating” of the prime minister and India's standing in the international arena.    
    
India and the UAE on Saturday agreed to start trade settlement in their currencies and link their fast payment systems to make international financial interactions simpler and open a campus of IIT-Delhi in the Gulf nation.    
    
Modi also held wide-ranging discussions with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during which the two leaders lauded the economic partnership and hoped to achieve the target of USD 100 billion in trade before the G20 meeting in Delhi in September this year.
    
Puri said the opening of the IIT campus in Abu Dhabi is a “significant milestone” in the growing partnership between the two nations.  
    
“This short visit of the prime minister (to UAE) had very substantive outcomes,” he added.