The recent visit of Indian PM to France reflects the strong strategic partnership which the two countries deeply value and share. India and France have excellent bilateral ties, which are reinforced by a shared vision to cooperate for further enhancing peace and prosperity for the two countries and the world at large. The strong strategic and economic partnership is complemented by a shared perspective on major global concerns such as terrorism, climate change, etc.

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India –France relations in the past:

• For nearly four decades, successive French presidents — Francois Mitter and in the 1980s, Jacques Chirac from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s and Nicolas Sarkozy after that — made repeated efforts to elevate the engagement with India to a higher level.
• If Paris was an eager suitor, Delhi was distracted by the preoccupied relations with other major powers — US, Russia and China
• Delhi could hardly appreciate the pivotal value of France, and more broadly that of Europe, in transforming India’s international position.
• However, this trend has begun to change as Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid greater strategic attention to France and Europe in the first term.

Significance of India-France relations today:

• The relative harmony between the major powers witnessed after the Cold War is now becoming a distant memory.
• The growing tensions between the US on the one hand, and China and Russia on the other seems to make wider ramifications.
• Meanwhile, due to Trump administration’s disruptive moves, the cracks in the political West are widening.
• In this wider context of the slow breakdown of the post-War order, India and France could make coalitions that can provide a measure of stability.

India-France: Natural partners:

• Enhancing bilateral cooperation in strategic sectors:
  • France has always been an important partner in the development of advanced technologies.
  • This is set to advance further with the consolidation of civil nuclear cooperation and enhancing space cooperation.
  • The summit this week saw the placing of artificial intelligence and the unfolding digital revolution at the top of the bilateral agenda.
• Defence:
  • The new commitment to go beyond the buyer-seller relationship in the field of weapons procurement.
  • Synergies between India’s large defence market and the French strengths in armament production
  • The signing of Agreement regarding the Provision of Reciprocal Logistics Support
  • Political cooperation began with French support for India in limiting international sanctions on Delhi after its 1998 nuclear tests.
  • Today, France has emerged as India’s most reliable partner on issues relating to terrorism and Kashmir.
• Regional Cooperation:
  • To intensify maritime and naval cooperation in the Indian Ocean and more broadly the Indo-Pacific.
  • There is a sweeping and ambitious ocean agenda awaiting the two countries — from maritime governance to oceanographic research and from interoperability between their armed forces to capacity building in the littoral.
• Bilateral trade and Economic relations:
  • The India-France Administrative Economic and Trade Committee (AETC) provides an appropriate framework to assess and find ways to further promote bilateral trade and investment as well as to speed up the resolution of market access issues to the benefit of economic operators
• Global agendas:
  • Climate change, biodiversity, renewable energy, terrorism, Cybersecurity and digital technology, etc:
  • There have been joint efforts to limit climate change and develop the Solar Alliance
  • Both countries have agreed on a road map on Cybersecurity and digital technology.

Way forward:

• France also opens the pathway for deeper engagement with Europe on global issues.
• Since independence, India has experimented with different institutions including the NAM and BRICS to shape global norms.
• The new partnerships with France, Germany and other like-minded countries like Japan would hopefully be significant for India’s influence on the global stage.