French President Nicolas Sarkozy, accompanied by wife Carla Bruni and other officials, on Saturday arrived on a four-day visit to India.
Sarkozy will focus on bilateral space cooperation when he visits the Indian Space Research Organisation at Bengaluru today.
The French president and his wife, who arrived by a special aircraft, will head to the Leela Palace hotel on Old Airport Road. He will then address scientists and other dignitaries at ISRO, following which he will have a brief interaction with them. Sarkozy and Bruni will leave Bengaluru at 2 pm.
The focus of the talks will revolve around Indo-French space projects which include the Megha Torpiques and SARAL, which are being jointly developed by ISRO and the French National Space Agency.
The two satellites are expected to be launched next year. The MT satellite will study the water cycle in the tropical atmosphere while SARAL will monitor sea levels.
In addition to this, French Minister for Research Valerie Pecresse will open the French Consulate at Palace Road in Bengaluru. However the French President will not stay for the inauguration and would be leaving for Agra immediately after the ISRO programme.
