 take me. Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi ji, President of France, His Excellency Emmanuel Macron, Chairman Tata Trust, Shri Ratan Tata, Chairman Air India, Shri N. Chandrasekharan, CEO Air India, Shri Campbell Wilson, and CEO Airbus, Mr. Guiyam Furi. Namaskar and greetings of the day. I am honoured to welcome you all today to this virtual event to mark the landmark partnership between Air India and Airbus for supply of 250 aircraft. Given the significance of this event, Honourable Prime Minister of India and His Excellency, the President of France, have kindly consented to grace the occasion. To commence, I would first invite Shri N. Chandrasekharan, Chairman of Air India for his remarks. Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi ji, His Excellency, President Emmanuel Macron, Minister Goyal, Minister Sindhya, CEO of Airbus, Guiyam Furi. I would like to make some brief remarks on behalf of Mr. Tata, myself and Campbell Wilson. It's just about a year since the government handed over Air India to the Tata group. Air India is not yet another project. In a manner of speaking, it is a national project. A lot of emotions are involved in this project. There are huge expectations and one billion people want Air India to be very successful and cheering across the country. And all the Indian diaspora globally are looking forward to Air India's success. It has got such a big history and heritage. We on our part are going through a massive transformation because we are committed to building a world-class airline known for safety, on-time performance, the best of Indian hospitality and modern fleet and a wholesome experience for every passenger, whether they are in the front row or in the last row. That's our commitment. And we have been very busy since we took over. In order to do this, there are many ingredients that are required. While I will not go into each one of them, one of the most important thing is modern fleet, fleet which is efficient and which is modern and which can perform for all routes. And in doing so, we have built a very good relationship with Airbus. The government team have been incredible in the way they have worked with us for almost two years, even before we officially won the contract of Air India. And today I'm happy to say that we have signed a letter of intent to acquire 250 aircrafts, 40 of them on the white body A350 which we will use to fly all ultra long distance across the globe and 210 narrow body. And we have also had significant options to increase the fleet order once we grow. And the relationship with Airbus is particularly important because it is developing to be a very good 360 degree relationship between Tata Group and Airbus. We already are manufacturing or able to manufacture the C295 aircrafts for our defense and we have relationships in technology services, engineering and IT. We are really working on bigger partnerships and one of our ambitions for this country is to bring in the commercial aircraft manufacturing at some point in time in the future. We have teams aligned on both sides and we see this moment as a most significant moment for the Tata Groups at India, Indian aviation and for manufacturing sector in India. I want to thank the Honorable Prime Minister, Government of India and President Macron, you and your government for all the support we continue to receive. I would really like to say that your administration here which is based in India have been extremely proactive and reaching out to us and helping us all the time. So I want to thank both of you and express my gratitude. Thank you sir. I now invite Mr. Guillaume Faury, CEO of Airbus to deliver his remarks. Honorable Prime Minister, Mr. President of the Republic of France, Emmanuel Macron, dear Ministers and dear friends from Tata Sons, dear Ratan, dear Chandra and of course dear Campbell from Air India. Today is a historic moment for India, for Air India and for Airbus and at Airbus we are very proud and grateful that the Tata Group has chosen the A350 and the A320-0 to script Air India's revival. The magnitude of the Air India order, the size of the 250 planes that Chandra just explained, demonstrates the appetite for growth in the Indian aviation industry is the fastest growing in the world. India is indeed on the verge of an international air travel revolution and we are humbled at Airbus that our partnership with the Tata Group will contribute to this new chapter. The time is right for India to turn into an international hub and we believe the Airbus A350 will trigger a change of paradigm in the long-haul travel that matches the aspiration of India and its people. The A350 will turn into the new flagship of India's transcontinental service whereas the A320-0 will remain the undisputed flagship for domestic and regional service. But we do not see India just as a growth market. At Airbus we see India as a strategic industrial and technological hub offering the right mix of competencies and competitiveness which is why we have developed a fully-fledged engineering center in Bengaluru employing a few thousands of people and growing very fast. We are constantly increasing our sourcing and our manufacturing in India. Today every Airbus, be it a commercial aircraft or a helicopter has technologies and parts designed and made in India. So while the Air India aircraft will ultimately be finally assembled in Germany and France, in Europe, many of their components and parts will come from Indian companies and critical technologies will come and we're growing in that dimension from the Airbus Indian Engineering Center in Bengaluru. We're also committed to catalyzing the growth of the local aviation ecosystem with the establishment of a state of the art engineering training, digital and MRO capabilities. Our local footprint is a testament to our commitment to developing the Indian aviation and aerospace industry. We make in India, we design in India, we innovate in India and we train also in India. Airbus has strong affinities to India and is keen to weave our destiny together. Making India is at the heart of the Airbus strategy in India and the C295 program demonstrates Airbus commitment to supporting dear Prime Minister, your vision of an Atmanir Barbarat. With the Tata Group, I'd like to say Airbus has the most trusted and respected partner. We have grown as Chandra explained a very close relationship in the last two years and this is placing the two companies in a very good place to work together and develop India as a leading and sustainable aviation market. Chandra, we believed and we continue to believe in your vision for Air India and for India. So India is well on its way to achieving its ambition in the aerospace and defense sector and Airbus will continue to be a very strong partner in this journey. Thank you very much again for your trust and looking forward to working together now. Thank you, Mr. Fauri. I would now request Honorable Prime Minister to address this special event. Your Excellency, my friend, President Emmanuel Macro, CPU's girl, commerce and industry minister, see Jyotiraditya Sindhya, Minister of Civil Aviation, Sri Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Trust, Sri A. N. Chandrasekharan, Chairman Tata Sons, Mr. Capwell Wilson, CEO of Air India, Mr. Geom Fauri, CEO Airbus. First of all, I would like to congratulate and congratulate you on this landmark agreement with Airbus. I would like to thank my friend, President Macro, for joining this event. This important deal, along with the deep ties between India and France, is also showing the successes and achievements of the civil aviation sector. Today, our civil aviation sector is a part of the development of India. To strengthen our civil aviation sector is an important aspect of our national infrastructure strategy. In the last eight years, the number of airports in India has increased from 74 to 147. This means that our regional connectivity scheme is connected to the air connectivity of our country through the air connectivity of our country. This is increasing the social development of our country. In the near future, India is becoming the third largest market sector in the aviation sector. According to many scholars, India will need more than 2,000 patients in the next 15 years. Today's historic engagement will help to fulfill this growing demand. India's make in India, make for the world vision, is opening up many new opportunities in aerospace manufacturing. For greenfield and brownfield airports, 100% FDI has been provided with an automatic roof. Similarly, ground handling services, maintenance, repair and overhaul, means 100% FDI has been provided with an automatic roof. India can become the hub of MROs for the entire region. Today, all the global aviation companies are present in India. I invite them to take full advantage of these opportunities. Friends, the understanding of Air India and Airbus, India, France and the strategic partnership is an important opportunity. A few months ago, in October 2022, I took part in the defense transport aircraft project. The project also includes the participation of Tata and Airbus. I am also happy to know that the biggest MRO facility is being established in India for the service of the French company. Today, the international order and multilateral system, and the international order and multilateral system, is providing the service of the French company. Whether it is the security and service of India and the Pacific, or the security and service of the Pacific, India and France are also providing the service of the French company. I am also happy to know that this year, the international order and multilateral system, will provide more opportunity to work together with India. Once again, I thank all of you. Thank you, sir. I would now request President of France, his excellency Emmanuel Macron, to deliver his remarks. Thank you very much. Thank you, dear Prime Minister, dear Narendra. I am very glad to have the opportunity to see you, even just through this VTC, but after our meeting on the sideline of the G-20 in Bali, and the great discussion we had together. And I want to congratulate you, your ministers present here, our two CEOs, dear Chandra Sekaran and dear Mr. Fori, for this new success. And thank you very much for offering us the opportunity to celebrate this strategic partnership in the aerospace sector. Once again, this achievement shows that Airbus and all its French partners, including Safran, are fully dedicated to develop new areas of cooperation with India, and we've achieved so much with India. I mean, in the wide range of sectors from space to cyber, from defence to culture, from health to energy transition, and now we have the historic opportunity to go much further, given the potential of Indian and the Indian people. I fully concur with you, Mr. Prime Minister, dear Narendra, about all the perspectives we have and about the strengths of our partnership. I will try to add two quick points. The first one is that Airbus is contributing to the outstanding development of India, and the new 250 aircrafts, which will be delivered to Air India, will be one more step in this direction. There is a deep commitment in France to provide the state of the art, the most efficient technologies available to India, and that is part of your Made in God strategy. French government has put all my energy for the last six years to reinvigorate French industry. And beyond aviation, we are building a new ambition in the sectors of nuclear energy, microchips, space, cyber, biotech, to mention a few of them, and definitely France is clearly a place to invest in and a place for engineers, researchers, and this is why we want to build more with India. And more broadly, the end of the pandemic should lead to more exchanges between our two countries, students, scientists, artists, businessmen, women, tourists. All are most welcome to France, and I encourage Indians to come and be part of this French-Indian friendship. And I'm very happy to have this type of contract being signed today, but more and more exchange between us. And I want to mention the organization of the Choose France Summit on the 15th of May, a day dedicated to all the business leaders eager to invest in France. And Dheeshon Ra, I know that how much committed you are, and we are very happy to welcome you several times. The second remark I wanted to add is that among the fights we have to face together, clearly we have a lot of regional and multilateral challenges. You mentioned them, and I think this is particularly important in this very year where India has the presidency of the G20 and I want to do my best to make this presidency a success. The French government and French companies are active to propose solutions in order to accelerate the energy transition to help India to reach the goals recently set in terms of the carbon neutrality. And we showed that our two countries can make a difference, especially I do remember Dheeshon Ra when together we launched the International Solar Alliance five years ago in India. We will also work together on biodiversity and I press your policy on plastic use and we will organize with Costa Rica the next conference on oceans in 2024-2025 and in less than one month the one for summit will be held in Libreville Gabon. Based on this common ambition we are working together for the success of India's G20 presidency in a difficult context with the Russian aggression against Ukraine and India under your leadership. Clearly can be the one to mobilize the whole world and help us to address the tremendous issues we have in front of us. In this perspective I want to thank you for co-organizing with us this new South-North partnership. A session will be held in Paris in June 2022-2023 and clearly will contribute to your G20 presidency and is for us very important. Before yielding the floor, Dheeshon Ra, I would like to thank you for organizing this event and I want to thank our companies for the great partnership and the reciprocal commitment and trust. But I want to tell everybody that for me this very important contract and this achievement today is one of the milestones of the in-depth strategic and friendly partnership we have between India and France and between both of us, Mr Prime Minister. Thank you very much. Thank you, Excellency. Before we close I take this opportunity to convey gratitude to Honourable Prime Minister and His Excellency President Macron, Honourable Ministers and leaders of the two companies for gracing this occasion with their presence. Wish you all a present evening. Namaskar.