In February 2025, a video of the French President greeting other state leaders but ignoring the outstretched hand of the Indian Prime Minister was widely circulated. We have verified the accuracy of this video.

The video gained popularity on the Internet on February 11. In the video, French President Emmanuel Macron alternately greets the politicians in the frame: he shakes hands with US Vice President J.D. Vance and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and exchanges greeting kisses with the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sits in the same row with them, but Macron passes him by.

The French president was said to have “ostentatiously ignored” his Indian counterpart, they said.Channel One", "RIA Novosti", "Moskovsky Komsomolets", "Moscow speaks" And "Sputnik Armenia", as well as Telegram channels "Live broadcast • news"(722,000), "Ax Live"(720,000), "Before everyone else. Well almost"(508,000), "Dmitry Nicotin"(302,000), "Solovyov"(230,000), "Ne.Sugar» (227,000), etc.

10–11 February 2025 in Paris took place Artificial Intelligence Summit. In it accepted participation not only experts in this field, but also representatives of the authorities of the EU, USA, UK, China, India and other countries. The forum was co-chaired by Macron and Modi. The summit resulted in a declaration calling for open, inclusive and ethical development of artificial intelligence. The US and UK refused to sign the document, expressing fears that excessive regulation could slow down the development of the industry.

Viral video. Source: Telegram

The video that went viral on social networks, as some posts correctly stated, was filmed by the Associated Press. Full broadcast of the second day of the conference published on the agency's YouTube channel and lasts more than two and a half hours. The excerpt, which later became viral, begins at the mark 09:53. In the full version, Macron greets the other leaders, after which the event itself begins.

However, if you watch the broadcast from the very beginning, you can see that at the mark 08:38 Macron and Modi enter the conference room together. Judging by the video, the leaders met earlier and had already communicated in person, so there was no need for them to greet each other again.

Source: Associated Press broadcast screenshot

Some resources that distributed the video admit that Macron and Modi entered the hall together, but still insist that the French president ignored the Indian prime minister. However, firstly, the video shows that Modi extends his hand to greet not Macron, but von der Leyen, who is sitting next to him. Secondly, the events of the summit also filmed Reuters, and its broadcast shows the two leaders exchanging words as they walk towards the meeting room. At the mark 50:29 Macron hugs Modi, after which the politicians shake hands, pose for journalists and head into the room where the viral video takes place. The difference between the two events is only a few minutes.

Also on the web Can find tens photographs of Macron and Modi together, taken both during the summit and shortly before it.

Macron's refusal to shake Modi's hand generally does not fit with his behavior and rhetoric in those days. On February 11, the French President posted fast in X, where he greeted Modi and Vance who arrived in Paris. They are sat at the summit next to Macron, which indicates his special attention to these guests. Moreover, on the weekend leading up to the forum, Macron stated to journalists: “India and France are two great powers that are very closely aligned in their desire to work with the United States and with China, but we do not want to depend on anyone.” On February 11, after the summit, Macron invited Modi to dinner in the southern city of Cassis, and the next day they went to Marseille, where they held several more meetings and opened a new Indian consulate. French journalists writeWhat this suggests is Macron's desire to strengthen relations with India, which Paris sees as an alternative to rivals China and the United States. Given such aspirations of France, it is unlikely that Macron deliberately publicly humiliated Modi by refusing to shake his hand.

The video began to spread in the media and social networks on February 11. Fact checkers from Les Observateurs, a project of the French TV channel France 24, believe, that a fragment of the broadcast with a misleading caption first appeared on Radio Sputnik’s social media accounts. However, according to Verified, the first videos published “Izvestia” (22,000 views) in its Telegram channel on February 11 at 12:50 Moscow time. Then the video began to spread across other pro-Kremlin media: within half an hour the news appeared on the website and in the Telegram channel “Newspapers.ru" and in "Sputnik Moldova" Subsequently, videos with a similar false signature began to be published by English-speaking users X, some publications dialed thousands of views. Dozens posts are also found in Hindi - the authors of such publications accused Macron of insulting the country.

After the video became so widely discussed on social networks, and the French media denied the news about Macron’s impolite behavior, some media outlets and Telegram channels that distributed the video admitted their mistake. Among them, for example, “Insider UA", "Anatoly Shariy", Lenta.ru And RBC (although on the latter’s website there is still available two notes on refusing a handshake, refutation can only be found in the Telegram channel). However, the vast majority of Russian media that published the video did not refute anything. Moreover, some continue to develop the topic - for example, “Constantinople» asked the political scientist to comment on how Macron’s behavior could affect the bilateral relations between France and India. The expert’s answer was shared by “Gazeta.ru"

Thus, Macron did not shake hands with Modi when they were filmed by the Associated Press, but only because the politicians had said hello shortly before and entered the room together. Modi was the guest of honor at the summit, which was emphasized several times during the event and after it.

Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons