Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to France, President Jacques Chirac has said that he was planning to visit India early next year to lend further impetus to his country's strategic relationship with the "great democracy".
"With India, whose Prime Minister I will be receiving a few days from now, our commercial and investment relations are rapidly expanding," he said, addressing the 13th French Ambassadors' Conference in Paris on Monday.
"To lend further impetus to our strategic relationship with this great democracy, I plan to go there in early 2006," Chirac said.
He said France will make the most of the confidence it enjoyed among partners such as India.