Friendship between India and France is unbreakable, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech at the UNESCO headquarter in Paris, terming it 'Infra'.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a two-day visit to France, addressed the Indian diaspora at the UNESCO headquarter in Paris. He started his speech with a touch of French by saying, "Bonjour, mes amis."
From building new India to fostering the friendly bond between India and France, Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed it 'Infra'.
Also read: PM Modi, French President Macron hold marathon talks
"Within 75 days of the new government coming to power, we took many strong decisions," he said. PM Modi also said that the focus is on building a new India and the whole world will be proud of it. The Prime Minister spoke about his re-election and said that the massive mandate that was given to the NDA government this election is a mandate for a ‘new India’.
"In new India, the way in which action is being taken against nepotism, corruption, loot of people's money, terrorism... this has never happened before," Modi added.
In his speech, he said, Paris is filled with the echoes of Ram these days after all it is the year of Bapu's 150th birth anniversary. He added that if he had the chance to do so, he would spend time at Bapu's feet.
The friendship between India and France is unbreakable. In fact the relationship between India and France is more than just friendship, he said. The Indo-French relationship has stood the test of time. India and France's alliance can be called as 'Infra', whether it is a form of infrastructure or solar infrastructure, Modi said.
"You all follow football and you know that in order to achieve what you want, in order to win, you need to score the goals. There are more fans following France's football team than the number of fans in India. However, India is now achieving goals that it only dreamt about in the past," he said.
India's healthcare has become one of the world's largest programmes and the Ayushman Bharat covers more people than the entire population of US, Canada and Mexico combined, PM said, adding that the country will also eradicate Tuberculosis by 2025.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also said that India will achieve most of the climate change goals set for 2030, in the next year and a half.
Recalling India's participation in World War 1, the Prime Minister said, many Indians gave their lives in a war that wasn't even theirs. India fought in France too during World War I and 9,000 of our soldiers sacrificed their lives in the battle. "We should never forget their sacrifice."
Read Exclusive COVID-19 Coronavirus News updates, at MyNation.