French President hails Indian elections

NEW DELHI: French President Nicolas Sarkozy has hailed the "remarkable conduct" of the Lok Sabha polls and looked forward to pursuing and intensifying the strategic partnership between the two countries.

In a congratulatory message to his counterpart President Pratibha Patil, Sarkozy said, "the President of the French Republic congratulates the people and the government of India for the remarkable conduct of the Indian general elections." He paid tribute to "the faithfulness of the largest democracy in the world to the values of liberty, people's sovereignty and respect of diversity in secularism."

Sarkozy said he was delighted to be able to "pursue and intensify the strategic partnership which links our two countries in the service of peace, sustainable development and the fight against global scourges such as international terrorism."

He reaffirmed France's support for India so that it may occupy its "rightful place" in international multilateral institutions "so as to build a controlled globalization in the service of human development and peace".