History

Relations between India and France date back to the 18th century. The political, commercial and cultural contacts, then established, were maintained throughout the 19th century. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established after the Independence of India. Since then, co-operation has developed in all the major areas.

It was on the basis of this old bond of trust that France and India decided to take a new step by establishing a strategic partnership in 1998. With the establishment of this partnership, there has been a significant progress in all areas of bilateral cooperation through regular high-level exchanges at the Head of State/Head of Government levels. The growing cooperation and exchanges include strategic areas such as defence, counter-terrorism, nuclear energy and space.

The Embassy of India in France has seen 25 Heads of Mission till date:

SI. No.	Name of Head of Mission	Date of charge assumption	Date of charge relinquishment
1.	Wing Commander Mr. Sardar H.S. Malik, Ambassador	October, 1949	1954
2.	Mr. Y.K. Puri, Cd’A	December, 1954	1955
3.	Wing Commander Mr. Sardar H.S. Malik	April, 1955	1956
4.	Mr. K.M. Panikkar	February, 1956	1959
5.	Mr. N. Raghavan	June, 1959	1961
6.	Mr. Nawab Ali Yavar Jung Bahadur,Ambassador	February, 1961	1965
7.	Mr. Rajeshwar Dayal	June, 1965	1967
8.	Mr. Chandra Shekhar	August, 1967	1969
9.	Mr. Dwarka Nath Chatterjee	February, 1969	1976
10.	Mr. Ramchandra Dattatraya Sathe	July, 1976	November,1978
11.	Mr. Maharajakrishna Rasgotra	February, 1979	March, 1982
12.	Mr. Narendra Singh	March, 1982	1985
13.	Mr. l.H. Latif (Retd. Air Chief marshal)	April, 1985	1988
14.	Mrs. Soonu Kochhar	August, 1988	April, 1991
15.	Mr. C.V. Ranganathan	June, 1991	September,1993
16.	Mr. Ranjit Sethi	November, 1993	October,1997
17.	Mr. Kanwal Sibal	March, 1998	April, 2002
18.	Ms. Savitri Kunadi	April, 2002	September,2003
19.	Mr. Dalip Lahiri	May, 2004	July, 2005
20.	Mr. T.C.A. Rangachari	August, 2005	October,2006
21.	Mr. Ranjan Mathai	January, 2007	July, 2011
22.	Mr. Rakesh Sood	August, 2011	March, 2013
23.	Mr. Arun K Singh	April, 2013	April, 2015
24.	Dr. Mohan Kumar	May, 2015	July, 2017
25.	Mr Vinay Mohan Kwatra	July 2017	February 2020
26.	Mr Jawed Ashraf	July 2020	Till Date