In an effort to reach out to the new Indian Government, Laurent Fabius, the French Foreign Minister begins a visit here from this Sunday.

Sources said that the Foreign Minister will be the first western leader to meet the new Government. "This is something we appreciate very much," the source added.

During the visit the entire gamut of relations will be looked at. There will also be two side events -- one on higher education during which the French Minister will have an opportunity to meet Indian students going to France.

There will also be an event on sustainable growth and climate change which will be organised jointly with TERI and CII.

During the Mumbai leg of the visit, the French Minister will meet with leading tour operators and explain steps being taken to get more Indians to visit France, including having more VFS centres and how to deliver visas faster. France recieves 80 million tourists annually and is keen to get more Indian tourists.

Sources said India and France hope to conclude a tourism agreement in the next few month. Also, the idea of visit is to reach out to the Indian leader and not sign agreements.

In response to a question on the Raffale fighter deal, sources said it has been part of the India-France agenda for some years, but added that during this visit there were many other issues, including higher education and investment, which will also be focussed on.

The visiting leader is also likely to brief Sushma Swaraj on the situation in the EU and show solidarity with India with regard to its hostages in Iraq.

Meanwhile, it was announced that on Monday an Indian space launcher will launch a French satellite from Andhra Pradesh. This will be the second time that India will be launching a French satellite. Incidentally, this is the 50th year of India-France space collaboration.

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