French President Emmanuel Macron. (Source: AP) French President Emmanuel Macron. (Source: AP)

Observing that India and France have a lot in ‘common,’ French Ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler today said new President Emmanuel Macron will herald a “new bilateral dynamics” between the two countries. “We share a lot of common values with India, there is lot of opportunity for development of our bilateral relations,” Ziegler told reporters here. He said “..there will a new dynamics, a new bilateral dynamics with the new president coming to the office and the new government coming to office…”

Ziegler was speaking to reporters after inaugurating the first ‘Atout France’ (France’s tourism promotion agency) tourism kiosk in India and the newly relocated France Visa Facilitation Service (VFS) centre.

Stating within India, Bengaluru will be one of the hubs for the French president in terms of investment and presence of French community, Ziegler said: “Yes we have a lot to do, and we will do a lot.”

He said France has become the most preferred outbound destination for Indians as in 2015 alone five lakh Indian travellers visited France, registering a 45 per cent increase of Indian tourists to France compared to the previous year.

Though the figures for 2016 were still not available, it will be “quite impressive” looking at the numbers of visa issued, he said, adding Bengaluru is one of the fastest growing places for visa applications to France with more than 30,000 applications made last year alone.

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