Fact Check: Did Macron Snub Modi During Paris AI Summit? Here’s What Happened
Macron and Modi arrived at the Paris AI Summit together, shook hands and shared a hug.
A video from the recent Artificial Intelligence (AI) summit in Paris, France, showing French President Emmanuel Macron around various world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is being widely shared on social media.
What's happening in the video?: The clip shows Macron shaking hands with US Vice President JD Vance, then interacting with European Union President Ursula von der Leyen and United Nations' Secretary-General António Guterres, while PM Modi remained seated.
Some users on social media, including Congress leader Srinivas BV, shared the clip to claim that Macron ignored Modi as he did not shake hands with the prime minister.
Several Russian-language accounts also shared this same video, claiming that Modi was "pointedly ignored" by Macron.
The clip has gone viral among international social media users. (Source: X/Altered by The Quint)
What happened?: While it indeed appears as if Macron ignored PM Modi, a closer look at visuals from the summit show otherwise.
News agency Associated Press (AP) shared a live stream of world leaders and American artist Pharell Williams at the summit, which showed all of them arriving at the event and mingling during it.
At the 8:38-minute mark, one can see the French president entering the venue with PM Modi shortly before the two begin interacting with the people in attendance, such as Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, among others.
Over a minute later, we saw the same visuals that have now gone viral, showing PM Modi sitting down as Macron greets people around him.
The event called the Paris AI Action Summit, was co-chaired by Macron and Modi, as per a press release by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Further into the video, Macron gave a speech to those in attendance, before inviting PM Modi to the stage.
At the 17:13-minute mark, Macron can be shaking hands and hugging PM Modi before his speech.
AP's livestream showed the two shaking hands and hugging. (Source: Associated Press/Screenshots/Altered by The Quint)
The account also shared another post showing a photo of the two together.
(This article was first written by Aishwarya Varma in The Quint, and republished by Deccan Chronicle as part of the Shakti Collective Fact Check initiative).
