Direct talk with #IndianYouth | Emmanuel Macron

Je comprends que tout le monde parle et comprends l'anglais, donc allons-y en anglais et je peux prendre des questions français si vous avez, si certains de vous souhaitent parler en français. Donc merci beaucoup, je suis très heureux d'avoir l'opportunité de discuter avec vous et d'avoir ce direct exchange. Je ne veux pas faire une longue introduction. Je veux juste dire que la relation entre nos deux pays est une longueur. Je l'ai mentionné et nous avons mentionné avec le Président Maudi un peu d'aujourd'hui en referant à cette histoire, et je suis accompagné par une délégation française qui, je pense, parfaitement représente la relation riche.

Vous avez des intellectuels, des ministres et des gens impliqués dans le public et dans l'édition. Vous avez des chefs et des gastronomies, vous avez des researchers, vous avez des politiciens, vous avez des gens impliqués dans la fashion et la création, dans le cinéma, dans la culture, donc différents domaines. Et pour moi, c'est très important, et évidemment, l'économie. C'est juste un sort de, en un nutshell, la relation principale. Mais pour moi, nous sommes au début d'un nouveau momentum between our two countries, and we will probably discuss about that, but we are two countries where culture, identity, relationship with myth is extremely important and structural.

And at this point of time, there is a huge change in the current global environment, new threats with terrorism, risk of hegemony, and in the same time, you have a sort of the beginning of a dismantling of the global order made post-World War II. And we can revert on that if you want. And I think our two countries have a very special role to play. And that's, for me, the core of the relationship regarding defense, security, economy, but as well culture. Because I think the cornerstone relation between our two countries, the key issue, is how to preserve a permanent balance, inclusiveness, and a series of different balances to preserve our own identity. The second issue is precisely you.

That's why I wanted to have this moment. I think we need more exchange between our people, more exchange between students, people involved in creation and so on. I'm very happy to have in this place today as well some of the winners of Make Our Planet Great Again and the Minister organized this contest. but some of you basically won this challenge and came to France to become a researcher. I want more students to come to France and I'm happy as well to have in this place some of our young leaders which are the starting points of this new relationship. Why? Because everything is about people. Even when leaders take bad decisions, everything is about people.

And when you know the culture of the other, you have the specific link. And I have to say to Jean-Claude Carrière who spent something like 11 years of his life to translate and adapt the Mahabharata and organized it in Avignon beginning of the 1980s. I was with the Foreign Affairs Minister of India a few hours ago and she told me, I have a great experience of France. I went to Avignon and I saw Mahabharata. I don't know if it's a great experience of France or India but at least that's the best evidence of the role of people specifically on imagination. And that's why I'm very keen on having this kind of exchange because we have something to share.

You have something to bring to France and French people have something to bring here regarding taste, regarding culture, regarding imagination. and the more we can have this kind of exchange, the more we can preserve our people in the future of any bad decision. I don't want to be longer. Taman, you told me a few months ago in Paris. Now you have to come to France because he's one of the winners of the MOBGA challenge. So I'm here and here to discuss with you guys. So the floor is you.

Monsieur le Président, we'll start with the questions if you like. How many of you come from schools rather than universities? please raise your hands. I think we could start a question with somebody who's really amongst the youngest. And we'll take it from this side. I see the person in blue. Would you like to ask a question? Yes, thank you. Mr. President, it's an honor to meet you today. My question to you is that what message would you like to give to the young generation which is responsible for shaping up the future in the coming years? Thank you.

Wow. No less than that. Look, I mean, first of all, not to be overwhelmed by such a burden. I mean, live your life and go to school. And I think, first of all, and we will probably revert to that, but have the best possible education. Learn and learn, go to school, go to universities. I think it's absolutely critical. And that's, for me, one of the main battles in this current environment. The less educated you are, the less opportunities you have. So, go to school, learn, and better understand the current complexity of our environment because everything is more and more complex. The second point I would make for your generation is not to consider that everything is fixed at 20 or 25.

It's even, I mean, it's true for my generation. It's probably more true for your generation. The speediness of changes, of new challenges emerging, is very high. So, your education is just a starting point to have more autonomy to learn more and learn again in different fields. And you will learn all along your life. that's a critical point. The third thing, and I think it's very important, especially when you are young, but we should think like that for me, even we are old. Think about long term.

I think most of the issues we have today regarding climate, regarding terrorism and so on, are due to the fact that a lot of leaders and a lot of people, especially in political and economic fields, were very short-term driven. They were greedy. They wanted to accumulate power. They didn't think one thing about the kind of frustration they can raise on the other side. So think about long term perspective because you will share this world for the long run given your age. And fourth, always think, and that's linked to the complexity, that if you want a sustainable world, you need to build balances, new balances. and my advice for your generation is not automatically to win.

I mean, do your best. Try to deliver and get results and so on. But always think about the balances you can create or preserve, the place you can provide to the others and the balance you need to preserve your country but as well the region and the global environment. That's in a nutshell a few advice I can provide.

Thank you. I think we could take a question from this side. Are there any hands going up? Lots of hands. I can see there's a hand there. Maybe Jathinder you could give the microphone there. Good afternoon Honorable President. My name is Anand and I'm a second year MBA student from IMA. My question is how is the French government preparing itself for the next industrial revolution which will witness rise in artificial intelligence and its applications? Thank you.

Thank you very much. I think we are in the middle of an ongoing revolution with digital and climate change. That's two revolutions at the same time but which are changing in depth. The way to produce, the way to consume, the way to connect to each other. Your behavior is very different from the behavior of students 10 years ago for sure. You have new devices, new behaviors and that's something we have to take into consideration because it's changing very rapidly and drastically our own organization. In order to do so, what we want to do and what we are doing is first of all to change the mindset I would say and the culture. We have a lot of great corporates in France.

In Europe, we are number one in terms of large caps. we need more and more entrepreneurs and we need more speediness. Now, this year, we are number one in continental Europe in terms of startup creations. We have to increase that and help them to progress very rapidly. But the best way to address this new change is to change the mindset and especially for France facilitate entrepreneurship and as I often told it, I think that one of the first issues is to increase risk takers numbers and decrease cost of failure. That's absolutely critical because in the current environment I'm not in a situation to say where this world is going. I have a few ideas.

We have a few ideas about the critical innovations. We know that if you deliver on energy storage, that's a big innovation because it's how to completely change your model and make renewables substituable to nuclear energy or coal plants. You know that the day you have strong innovation in artificial intelligence for health and turn, that's a big game changer. But it's very hard to predict from the government point of view. It will be led from the ground by researchers, entrepreneurs, and so on. And you need a new cultural mindset which is growing in France. We are a country of inventors, creators, and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur is a French word, I often say.

and that's why we need more and more people trying, sometimes failing, and trying again. And that's a huge change in terms of mindset because during the past decades, the normal model was to succeed. And in France, it was forbidden to fail and forbidden to succeed too much. so now you have just to push people to try, sometimes to fail, to try again and to succeed. That's absolutely critical in terms of mindset. Second, we will invest more and more money in fundamental research and the ministry is here on, I would say, the basis of this kind of innovation. You need to invest in fundamental mathematics.

You need to be very strong in biotech, you need to be, and in bio more largely, you need to be very strong on some fundamental research program if you want to be innovative. Not 100% should be focused on, I mean, the more dedicated and on-purpose research. Third, what we want to develop is the adapted ecosystem in order to be part of this battle for artificial intelligence because you fairly said it's one of the critical battles. When I look at the global situation today, you have two potential leaders, U.S. and China.

U.S., this artificial intelligence fight is led by private players, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and some others, and it's totally privately driven and privately held, which, according to me, is a big mistake because it deals with privacy, with, in a certain way, a choice of society because it will impact your day-to-day life, your intimacy, and so on. And these guys will decide for you. In China, it's 100% state-driven, government-driven. You have private leaders, but all the data are controlled and monitored by the government, which is, for me, not the society I decided to live in, but which will provide a poor fire to China, absolutely huge in terms of artificial intelligence.

In Europe, we have to design our own model, and that's why I think one of the critical items will be to better organize our research, and that's why I push very much this sort of DARPA innovation in Europe, i.e. to invest much more in research and especially on artificial intelligence at the European level, and you have here a lot of players in this field. Second, to create an actual single digital market, which is key if you want to have leaders in artificial intelligence. And third, build your own regulation, because you have to decide the use of data you accept.

If I take your data through the mobile, through one app or another, I want to be clear vis-à-vis yourself about the use of this data. Will I share this data with somebody else? Will I use this data to change your life and provide new opportunities? Do you accept it or not? I mean, we have to be clear and know where to do is very, I mean, very clear about these issues. So, that's pretty much the strategy we have. Mindset, fundamental research and new organization at the European scale. But I think we have a lot of things to do in this battle. Frédéric, you want to add something? If somebody from the French delegation wants to... Don't hesitate. I will...

Okay. Maybe we can take a question from there. I can see loads of hands going up. We will take a question there. Pratha, is there a question close to you? Yes. Hello. Good evening, President. First of all, welcome to India. And thank you for having your valuable time for spending with us. Myself, I quickly, briefly introduce myself. I studied in France and I came back to India two and a half years ago and started working here. in order to make, as you said, to make our planet great again, how does the government of France support or extend its support to the developing countries like India or China?

Thanks very much. I mean, first of all, I think that's an actual global challenge. Make our planet great again is just to say, look at the situation where we are about climate change. We have to deal with that. That's our own interest and obviously that's the interest of a lot of emerging and developing countries as well. But that's a very top priority. And that's how to change the way to produce and our own business models. It's not just to correct at the margin the business model. but it's how to produce, to invest totally differently to be sure that we preserve this perspective. So, first of all, we worked very hard to preserve the Paris Agreement framework.

That's a global framework that's just about treaties and international rights, but it's very important because it creates constraints. Thanks to a lot of countries, we manage, after the U.S. decision to leave, to preserve the Paris Agreement. We want to increase that with a new agreement, with a global pact for environment, that we want to pass at the UN by 2020, which will give new rights to people, because the best way to create incentives is to provide rights regarding environment to people. Like that, people can go against a company or a government saying, you are not compliant with your own commitment. Third, we want, in our development policy, to invest on climate change.

I have two top priorities, education and climate change, which means that most of the projects we have, all the projects we have abroad, are compliant with our strategy. I don't finance coal plants. I stopped financing coal plants in Africa, for instance, because even if it seemed good, at the first sight, for my business and sometimes for the country, it's absolutely inconsistent with the overall strategy. So now we finance, a few weeks ago I opened in Birkenau Faso a solar plant that we financed. And that's what we will do. In our financing, we focus on renewables, on new grids, and new mobility and so on. And our involvement in India, for instance, is totally dedicated in this direction.

And the large majority of the overall financing of our agency for development is focused on precisely renewables and sustainability towards this country. Third, we took some very strong decisions, and that's the core of the initiative we take with Prime Minister Modi, with Solar Alliance Initiative. and the conference tomorrow will gather a large part of African and Ireland countries. They will be present, but we have more than 100 countries being part of this agreement, plus the financing. And what we want to do is to focus this financing on solar energy. Why?

Because that's the best way to create on the ground new opportunities to produce energy, which is essential in Africa, because when you produce energy, you produce light. It means that you provide education to people, and especially women. You produce opportunities to go together, to create economic activities, and so on. And producing this energy through solar panels and solar initiative is the best way to have this energy being produced on the ground, providing opportunities to the people directly, and being compliant with climate change. fourth point vis-à-vis a lot of emerging countries, is to provide innovation to these countries.

That's why MOPGA and TANEL is part of this initiative, it's so important, is how to disrupt a lot of markets and a lot of ways to produce in this field, and because this disruption, these innovations, will decrease costs like crazy. And this fight for innovation in this field, is good for development and emerging countries. Because today, a solar plant in total is less expensive than a coal plant in Africa for a country. And thanks to the innovation in mobility and so on, we can decrease the costs and we can provide much more rapidly these innovations to the emerging countries. That's the strategy on that. TAMAL, do you want to...

if you want to elaborate on that because he's a researcher in this field and he decided to come from India to France.

Hello. First of all, good evening, honorable president. So, in regarding this MOBGA plan, I can add two or three points. First of all, it's a great initiative taken by our honorable president, and I came to know last year, July or August. Then I subsequently applied for this plan and I should suggest you guys also to search in net about this program and there are a lot of scopes. You can explore yourselves or your idea regarding this under this plan. But the best part of under this make our planet great again is the going for renewable energy, going for the sustainable world.

So when you think from 30 or 40 years later for our future generation, that's the plan we should look for because it's already we are more or less dependent on fossil fuels or as president mentioned about the coal plants, all others, which contributes a lot of carbon dioxide and other kind of greenhouse gas effect. The results are climate change, global warming. I think we all are aware of these problems. But you can get aware of all these problems if you go for the original source of energy, that's the sun.

So under this program, I think it's a good and under this kind of program, it attracts a lot of new researchers to come and do the research and explore their ideas and makes our planet great again and we could offer a better planet for our future generation. And I like that part of this program and that's why I am in it. And thanks again to president for starting up this kind of great program. Thanks. Thank you. I think there's a question just behind you somewhere. The lady with the glasses, did you want to ask a question? They're at the back there. Could you ask your question?

Good afternoon, sir. I'm glad to have this opportunity. And I'm a mechanical engineer who is about to enter the workforce in a few months. And I would like to ask you about a very essential life skill, which is how do we thrive in an environment where we are facing a lot of hard hitting opposition and a lot of mudslinging because being a world leader, I'm sure you experience a lot of it. And I would like to get this advice from you because I feel it is a very valuable skill in the corporate world.

Thank you. Look, I mean, that's in fact a personal question you raise. first of all I think you should not have a sort of over expectation or overestimate your fears. You are educated, you trained yourself, you are ready. So I think the first point is not to see the new environment where you will go as a sort of fierce competition. You will have to compete for sure. But you have I mean, you need to have appetite without aggressivity. And I think it's very important. So be ambitious, do your best, but without thinking, that's always the first competition because I think that when you are non cooperative, you are losers at the end of the day.

Second, I would say, even if you decide to fight and you want to progress and you are aware of sometimes the difficult context, I think you always have to see in the others and in your different experiences the best way to learn. As I told your colleagues, I think that's a permanent learning, your word. It's totally different. This time where you entered into a company for 20, 30, or 40 years without any change is over. You will have to change. You will have to reinvent your way to proceed. You will have to change several times in terms of companies, probably sectors. You have to learn again to go to these new sectors.

And that's why I think take this first experience as a way to learn, to correct, to improve, but as one experience and do your best for this experience. I mean, it was explained a few minutes ago. My life is a series of different experiences. I learned a lot of things from each of them. Take it as it is. I think that's the best way. And I think the chance of your generation is that you will be in a situation, if you have the energy and the aspiration, to build your own opportunities. So I think the more you learn from these different opportunities and experiences, the more you will be in a situation at a point of time where you will decide to do so, to take the lead of your own life.

Either as an employee, but as well as an entrepreneur, or a researcher, a writer, a creator. But because you will have this luggage, which is yours.

Thank you. There are several questions here. We'll take one right in front from another woman who wants to ask you. There are lots of women who wanted to ask you questions. My name is Sanneka and I'm from Ashoka University. Mr. President, you would agree that just merely having a female representation in the parliament is not enough to ensure security for women. So how do you plan to implement your plans of action to make France a more secure space for women, not just of France, but those who are going to France, for maybe education, work, and employment? look,

first of all, we made a great change thanks to the elections in June. We changed in depth the parliament because my party and some of these representatives are in the delegations, these new members of parliament, but we had almost 50% of our candidates who were ladies, which is brand new because before this election it was something like around 20%. So that's a huge change. But change in terms of parliament and political landscape, obviously half of the government is coupled by women. You're right, it's not sufficient. We took a series of decisions during the past months for France in order to improve equality and to fight against this violence as you mentioned.

Because both of them are due to the same phenomenon. which is sort of the arrogance of the Agamone. And when males were used basically to have the unique place, it became sort of normalcy to have unacceptable behaviors and basically to be unacceptable in the society. And what should be unacceptable was become progressively more or less acceptable or at least not commented. So first of all, our society decided to change, I have to say. People decided to speak. That's a global change and a global phenomenon. But that's huge because speaking is the best threat violence vis-à-vis people when they are violent in the family or outside the family.

Second, we took very tough decisions and we will pass in the coming weeks a new law in order to increase, to create basically new rules and new regulations and increase punishment and very tough decisions against violent people vis-à-vis women. in the family, with specific rules because we protect young people in the family, which was not the case. It was supposed to be the case, but we increased basically the toolkit in order to protect. But outside the family as well, i.e. in transportation, in the street, we created new penalties and new situations by law in order to be in a situation to put very strong penalties against those who behave inappropriately.

Third, I think for this situation, that's a huge change of mindset as well. Obviously, it's to condemn violence and to be very tough vis-à-vis this violence is to protect women in the society. But much more than that is to say to give the same level of opportunities. We have a very good level of education of women in my country. That's a global fight. and I can revert on it if you have other questions about this issue. But in terms of education, it's fine. But we have some bias. For instance, when you go to some skills, some sectors, you have a sort of auto limitation by women. They don't want to go into certain areas of economy.

Becoming a engineer in France, it's much more for males than for females, which is totally crazy. So we have to change representations. We have to progress in that direction. Second, it means that we have to change within the corporates and within the societies in terms of equality of wages and equality of opportunities. So we pass new law. That's in the law we will pass as well. We will increase medically the penalties against some behaviors and we will promote the right situation. But the best way to change this mindset as well for that is the name and shame approach.

And we will name and shame, I mean, the worst people in the classroom and the worst corporates in terms of inequality, which is the best way to proceed. So we have a sort of global plan, as you see, and we are delivering, we made a lot of progress, we will pass this law, but that's a mobilization of the whole government and the whole society as well. Because it's unfair, because it's unjustified, but because as well that's a huge loss in terms of opportunities for the overall society. You don't innovate, you don't progress, you don't create value at the same scale and with the same intensity when you don't have equal opportunities for men and women. It's, I mean, you have evidence for that.

There are lots of hands going up there. There's this young man with the beard there, who's been raising his hand for quite a while. Thank you. Hello. Hello, Mr. President. Welcome to India. I'm a student from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and I have a question regarding research collaborations between the French and Indian government for you. So a lot of students go abroad in search of research and higher studies, but they don't come back. So my question to you is how can the French and Indian government collaborate in such a manner so as to create leading research centers in India so that those people who go abroad are tempted to come back and work here? Thank you.

First of all, I have to confess that a lot of your students or young researchers going abroad don't sufficiently go to France. So I'm not guilty for the situation you described. I would love to be, but it's not the case. So I think it's good to have this kind of exchange and to provide the opportunity to travel and spend a few years abroad. and I have the same with my students. But you address a very fair point, which is how to come back and share what you learned abroad with your country and in your countries. Which means that we have to frame this cooperation and it has to be to fit with the overall common strategy.

So first of all, I want to double in the coming years the number of Indian students going to France, but I want French students to go to India. And the message I want to pass is sincerely that you should go to France in tech, but as well in bio, in human, I mean social sciences, creation, literacy and so on, mathematics obviously. We have a lot of universities, high schools with the best level in the world.

We have great centers of researches and everywhere now you can be taught in English and you have access on top of it to another language, which I think is a great opportunity for an Indian student because I mean you have the opportunity to pursue your education, but you get access to francophonie, which is a huge opportunity because it means access to a large part of Europe but access to Africa and some other regions. But third, I do favor for all the other countries this way back because it's good. If you come for two to three years in France and you come back to India, it's good to me because you will develop links with people basically you met in France, i.e.

with laboratories, center of researches and universities in France and some other people. So the best way to organize this way back is definitely to build common centers and common initiatives. That's why, for instance, we created on nuclear energy, renewables, mobility, bio and so on this morning agriculture, some common initiatives. for me, it's not just to have initiatives for business leaders.

That's why our universities and our main centers, public players are here as well because they should be part of it, which means they should develop here partners, either strengthen Indian partners or open new structure here to allow people after this a few years in France or in Europe or in the US to come back and have a best best in class research in your country in order to follow up your activity here. I think it's consistent with the making India strategy of your prime minister. I think it's consistent with the interest of students and it's consistent with our own strategy. So that's exactly what we are doing.

Thank you, President. You're getting some rather stiff competition from the singing on the other side. So, you know, we will move there. I think there is a lady in pink who has been raising her hand for a very long time. Firstly, a very warm welcome to India. My name is Agrima Singh and I'm a student of Delhi College of Engineering. My question to you is, you started off as a bureaucrat and then you went on to become an investment banker and then you went out of politics. So, what made you make these transitions in your career and how have you managed to do so well in all the three worlds? You're at a loss for words, President Lula Kropp.

No, I tried to... Because that's a very attractive summary of this past decade and I was trying to revisit this decade and I'm not so sure that if I'm totally honest, I don't have exactly the same reading. I mean, first of all, set by chance and fortune. I mean, don't underestimate this part of your life. A series of choices and so on. I... When I was... How old are you? I'm sorry to... Okay. At your age, I think I have no... I had no clear idea about becoming a bureaucrat, as you said, and joining the Ministry of Economy and Finance. In fact, originally I wanted to become a writer, but probably I was less gifted than some others in this room, so I decided to do something else.

So, it's part of a constraint. And second, I thought I was fully dedicated to the government and my country, that's why I passed the exam and became civil servant. I was very happy, but I became civil servant at a time where it was very unpopular to become civil servant. at the beginning of this century. It was not cool at all. Everybody wanted to become... I mean, to be part of private sector, starting to become an entrepreneur, but very few people wanted to become civil servant, I have to say. So, which means that I had probably less competition. So, I went against the cycle. Second, after this first period of four years, I wanted to be much more independent.

I wanted to earn my life to decide, to choose. And I wanted to join the private sector to better understand this globalization and so on. And I joined the private sector, I became investment banker, without, I mean, any competence for that. I learned. I worked very hard at the beginning. But for the second time, I went against the cycle because I joined the private sector to become investment banker. in September 2008. And if you remember the past decade, it was the beginning of the worst financial crisis. And it was for me the best possible opportunity. Because it was the end of the past world of this industry. The beginning was basically upset. It was a huge change.

And a newcomer could have a chance. That's how I delivered, to be fair with you. I worked hard, but without the old, I would say, manners. And without the way to proceed of an old industry at the beginning of a huge crisis. And it helped me a lot. I left to join politics in 2012. And I launched my party in 2016 to compete. And I have to say it was exactly the same. I went against the cycle. I can tell you it was not cool to join politics a few years ago. Everybody thought it was impossible to disrupt the political system in France. And everybody in Europe and elsewhere were saying, OK, it's time for populism and extremism now.

If you defend Europe, progressist ideas, openness, it's probably cool, but not to do politics, not to be elected. I went against the cycle with a lot of people, and that's how we delivered. So I have to say, I had a lot of chance, but if there is a sort of common feature of these different experiences, I never tried to find the solution in the author's certitude. I never tried to find recognition of my action in other people's eyes. I tried to understand the current context and rush in the direction I thought was the right direction. Sometimes you fail, but sometimes you succeed. It would be my lesson.

My unique merit in this period is just to have decided on my own, and just to have put the maximum energy in the direction I decided to choose on my own.

So, President Macron, I'm being told by everybody that you have completely run out of time. So, I think that's what I'm being told. So, I have to bring this meeting to a conclusion. There are lots and lots of questions. I mean, look at the sea of hands going up.

No, but I can take a few questions. No, but perhaps we spoke a lot about climate and economy and so on. If you have questions, I mean, social questions, questions about religion or, I mean, other issues.

There's a lady right in front, maybe one last question there or two, that one. I've been told I have to get you off the stage by 5.40. Those are my consignes.

Okay, but there is another lesson I forgot for this young lady is never respect the rules.

First of all, a very warm welcome to Mr. President. My name is Emma Jouveria. I'm from Jamia Mille-Islamia, a student of French. I would like to know why the language French is not just a chance, I mean, it's more than a chance, but not a heritage that is being protected. How?

Say it again, for the French language.

Yeah, why the language French is a chance and not a protected heritage?

Probably, I mean, it is both. I think it's not a protected heritage because it's life. French language is obviously spoken in France, but much more today in Africa, in Pacific, in West India and in Guyana and South America. everywhere. And probably the actual current center of the French language is somewhere in the middle of Africa, not in France. So it is like it's our heritage, but people decided to take it. And a language is something that you take, you use, you manipulate, you transform. And you have rules in the language, that's the way to convey messages, have access to your culture and your myth and your own way to understand the word and convey your vision of the word.

That's why it's always much more than words. It's all the imagination conveyed with these words. But today, the French language is, in fact, beyond France. So that's why I do believe that's a chance. That's a chance because my country is a great country, and I will not here make the pitch for France. But I mean, I think that's a country where you have a level of excellence in terms of education, research, but as well respect for people and values, which is pretty unique. But on top of it, that's access to opportunities everywhere, and especially in Africa.

And that's, for me, a language of imagination, invention, and that's a language, and our discussion is the best evidence of it, which is not based on hegemony. For me, English today is the dominant language in the world. And a lot of people speaking English just don't see the opportunity or the interest to speak in other languages. The French language today is thought, is conceived, and should be developed by the permanent exchange with other languages and these plurilinguistic approaches. So that's why I do believe that's a huge opportunity and a chance, not just an heritage. Very, very last question.

Okay. We have one question from, you've talked about Africa. This lady has been wanting to ask a question for a very long time. Please go ahead, and that will be our last question. I know we have lots of international students here who would also, I've seen lots of hands going up there. So if you want to take a last question from one of your French students, you're welcome to do that. But please go ahead and ask your question. Thank you. I want to know if you could share with us some of your personal tools for dealing with difficult situations.

Look, I think I addressed some of the issues with my first and third and one of the last ones. But I often say, accept to go to bed with a lot of doubts, but always refuse to wake up with these doubts. So I think when you are in a difficult situation, you always have to remain lucid and try to understand why, but this lucidity should never decrease the intensity of your commitment. And I think you have two mistakes when you experience hard times. The first mistake is to lose your lucidity and to say, this difficult time is not due to me. I have no responsibility in that. These people just don't understand myself. It's ridiculous and so on. And sometimes you can make mistakes.

And that's not the best way to correct your mistakes. Other times you have difficulties, you experience difficulties just because of the context. And the other mistake is to abandon. So never abandon. And always doubt.

It would be my advice.

Okay.

One final question right here in front. I think you need a microphone. She'll just give it to you. And that really will be our final question. Thank you, Mr. President.

It's really my pleasure to see you today.

My name is Haimanut. I'm from Ethiopia. I'm currently studying at Ashoka University. So everyone thinks we are a future leader. And I've heard you using the word leader several times today. And I feel like this word is not as easy as we use it more often. So I would like to know on how you define leader. Like who is a leader for you? And what are the characteristics like the skills and the qualities that you look deeper than the person that you call a leader? And if you don't mind, can you please share with us one of the greatest like challenge that you faced in life and how you overcome it so that we can learn from you?

I think if you try to understand the main features of a leader, I think a leader has to understand the environment. There is no leader if there is this lack of solstity I mentioned. You need to have a vision of your word. So when you are a leader or you want to be a leader, you have to understand your word and have your own reading and understanding. And even if you can make mistakes and not have results at some point, if your vision is consistent and strong, at a point of time you will deliver. So understanding of your environment and strong vision. That's for me a very critical point. You have a lot of people who are ready to manage, monitor and say deal with the day-to-day life.

It's not to be a leader. You need a vision to say, okay, this world is changing into that direction and so on. In the current environment, you can see the leaders and those who are not leaders because this world is changing like crazy. You are dismantling of this new, of our old geopolitics. You have new common goods to be defended like climate. You have new threats like terrorism. If you are just short-term driven without any vision, you disappear. Second, I think you have to inspire people. For me, a leader is not somebody who will decide about everything or will do everything. It's impossible.

But because of a strong vision and because of the ability to choose right people for this vision, is to inspire and mobilize these people. And inspiring people is absolutely critical because that's your best army. You need soldiers when you are a leader. And the best soldiers are motivated people with their own DNA, their own features, their own certainties, but inspired by your vision and what you want to do. You can have discrepancies. For sure, you have differences and hopefully, but you need it. And third, I would say, in the current environment, you need inclusiveness. For me, a leader is not somebody who will try to build a gamony or have a vision of a gamony.

But we will try to build new kind of balances. That's what we discussed for our societies between male and female. And women equality is absolutely critical for leaders today, not because that's the mood. It's just because that's the unique way to preserve the actual balances in your society and to avoid any frustration. Balance between religions in your society. You are in a secular country. France has its own word for secularism with laïcité. But we want to create this balance and help. I want to help people to live all together in a sort of mutual respect.

And I think one of the main mistakes of a leader would be to try to create a sort of domination of your side, of your people on the others, because it's never sustainable. And because a large part of the violence in our current world is due to the frustrations of minorities, frustrations of dominated people. And under the collective control, and especially Sanskrit specialists, I think that's the in-depth meaning of the Dharma. I'm right, Jean-Claude. And the Dharma and this balance between the personal and global balances is part of the leadership, according to me. Because at the point of time, people have the feeling that what you promote is something true and good for them, in a nutshell.

Do you want to add something as a French delegation? Est-ce que vous voulez rajouter un point? Allez-y, Isabelle, Jean-Claude.

Just a few words from a French woman. She's a filmmaker. Her name, Agnès Varda. She was two weeks ago in Harvard. She was giving a masterclass, a conference. And she was saying to the students, to the young generation, I never give advice. I just say, enjoy. This is what I wanted to add, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay.

Enjoy with balance and equilibrium, as Jean-Claude would say. So with that, it just is my pleasurable duty to thank you very much for this. And several students have asked for selfies with you. I don't know how you feel about that. So it's up to you. Enjoy.

Enjoy.

Yeah. Okay. So thank you very much. And I'm sorry if all of you could not ask your questions. But we really have run out of time. The President has other engagements. But thank you very much for taking part and for all those questions.

No, thanks very much for this question. I will come back to take all the questions. But sincerely, be yourself. A lot of your questions were about your future experiences and so on. I tried to explain what I tried to do and try to deliver, even if we will be in a situation to judge at the end of the game. But be yourself. Be proud of what you are and try to... I mean, you have something to invent. This current environment, honestly, is not sustainable, to tell you the truth. So your generation has not just a huge responsibility. But you have a huge opportunity which is to transform, not to replicate a lot of past mistakes, but just to invent a new way to proceed. So please, just do it.

And I will take a photo. Selfie, but first of all, we can take a common selfie. That's a 360 selfie.

This is on the Elysees site.

Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks very much. Thank you.