Context: The Indian Space of Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to launch its Venus Mission in 2025 along with participation from French Space Agency CNES (The National Centre for Space Studies).

• As per the statement released by CNES on September 30, 2020, the VIRAL (Venus Infrared Atmospheric Gases Linker) instrument which is co-developed with ROSCOSMOS, Russian Federal Space Agency, and LATMOS atmospheres, environments, and space observations laboratory attached to the CNRS (National Scientific Research Centre), France, has been selected by ISRO after the request for a proposal.
• K Sivan, ISRO Chairman, and Jean-Yves Le Gall, CNES President held talks and also reviewed the areas driving cooperation between India and France in space. 
• After the Mars orbiter mission (Mangalyaan) and Moon missions Chandrayaan-1 and 2, ISRO has now set its eyes on Venus for carrying out its inter-planetary mission.

Statement by the French Space Agency

• According to the statement released by the French Space Agency, CNES, in the domain of space exploration, France will be taking part in ISRO’s mission to Venus which is scheduled for launch in 2025.
• CNES will be contributing and will prepare the French coordination. It will be the first time a French payload will be flown on an Indian exploration mission. It further added that the two nations have been pooling their expertise, notably in the domains of astronaut health monitoring and life support and space medicine.
• Initial exchanges have been concentrated on training for India’s flight physicians and technical teams and the supply of CNES flight systems.

India-France collaboration in the space arena

• Both France and India share a robust collaboration in the arena of space.
• France is also one of the three nations with whom India has been collaborating in the strategic sectors of space, nuclear, and defence. The two other countries are the United States and Russia.
• The two countries in March 2018 also issued a ‘Joint Vision for Space Cooperation’.
• India and France have also been working on ISRO’s Human Space Mission Gaganyaan project. It aims to send three Indians to space by 2022.
• Since September 2018, ISRO and CNRES have also set up a working group focused on the cooperation in the field of human spaceflight.