Round The World
New Delhi, 4 February 2016
Indo-French Ties
ALL WEATHER
FRIENDSHIP
By Amrita Banerjee
School of
International Studies, JNU, New Delhi
The
67th Republic Day celebrations saw a French leader being honored as the Chief
Guest for the fifth time. This year the parade also included the first-ever
participation of foreign troops in the march-past wherein 124 French Army
soldiers (a ceremonial Lyon-based military band contingent) marched
down Rajpath. Underscoring, the blossoming relationship between New Delhi and Paris.
French
President Francois Hollande’s three-days visit deepened India-France Strategic
partnership, consolidated and expanded the gains accomplished by Prime Minister
Modi’s visit to France
earlier.
India-France
relationship has truly come of age. Despite Paris
being a part of US’s Western Alliance, it has always shown flexibility in
dealing with India
as part of its independent foreign policy. Recall,
France was one of the first
Western countries to lift the arms embargo that hit India
and Pakistan
in the aftermath of the 1965 conflict. Similarly, during the 1971 war, Paris was one of the only Western Capitals to comment on India’s legitimate concerns vis-à-vis the refugee crisis in its border areas with Bangladesh.
Importantly,
France refused to sermonize India after the
1998 nuclear tests and publicly opposed US sanctions. Rather, it opened a
strategic dialogue with New Delhi
as an alternative to a sanctions approach and extended its support for civilian
nuclear cooperation.
France–India
relations have traditionally been close. Both nations have centuries-old
history of trade relations, from the 17th century until 1954, France maintained a colonial presence in the sub-Continent; Pondicherry, being one of
its former territories. Post India’s
independence, Paris’s lack of interest towards India can be attributed to Cold War political
fixation and Western mistrust of lofty moral posturing in Nehruvian foreign
policies and India’s
selective non-alignment guidelines.
A
key milestone in ties was President Chirac’s 1998 visit which resulted in the
signing of India's first strategic partnership which has significantly progressed
to all areas of mutual cooperation
through regular high-level exchanges at the Head of State levels especially in tactical
areas such as defence, nuclear energy, space and terrorism.
In
fact, France was the first
country with which India
entered a pact on nuclear energy following the IAEA and Nuclear Suppliers’
Group waiver. Consequently, a new impetus has been given to nuclear cooperation
with both leaders encouraging the conclusion of techno-commercial negotiations
by end 2016 for the construction of six nuclear power reactor units at
Jaitapur.
France has consistently
supported India’s
permanent membership of the UNSC. In 2008, President Sarkozy during his
visit to New Delhi had noted that India should get
“its rightful place at the global high table”. He assured that Paris
would do its utmost and support India
for a UNSC seat and for inclusion in NSG and an expanded G8.
In
the military domain, the Indo-French High Committee for Defence Cooperation set
up in 1998, comprises three sub-groups which discuss military cooperation,
industrial complex and strategic issues. The two sides have consolidated naval
cooperation to include ship visits, joint naval exercises and exchanges of
naval delegations and trainees in defense institutions.
Pertinently,
French military hardware is finding a significant place in India’s
military, among the flagship project are six Scorpene submarines,
Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft and a squadron of
DCNS Scorpène class submarines (called Kalvari-class
submarines). Besides these, the purchase of 36 Rafaele jets will further boost
Indian Air Force assets and provide India with a strategic edge over
neighbours.
Further,
both nations’ armed-services conduct joint-exercises called Varuna annually. France and India also maintain a discreet
‘strategic dialogue’ which covers joint cooperation against terrorism. Both
have instituted a Strategic Dialogue between the National Security Advisers.
France’s and India’s interests in the Indian
Ocean are also closely aligned as both have historically played an
active custodial and humanitarian role throughout the region. They share
concerns over the risks of sea-borne nuclear proliferation and malevolent non-State
actors. The two Republics uphold similar core values when it comes to navigational
freedom and closely monitor threats posed by revisionist actors to sea lines security
of communication.
In
addition, Paris recognizes that the Indian Ocean Region’s strategic equilibrium
can only be truly maintained once India emerges as a more powerful naval actor
with a greater capacity for sustained operations at sea and power projection. Therefore,
the annual Varuna naval exercises between the two countries
should not solely be viewed through the prism of military diplomacy but also as
a deliberate French effort in regional capacity building to counter China’s revisionist
powers.
Furthermore,
another area where interests converge is terrorism. In the wake of terror
attacks in Paris and Pathankot, Modi and Hollande have expressed solidarity
against terrorism. In fact, Modi asserted he decided to invite Hollande after Paris’s terrorist attacks
in November. The robustly worded separate joint statement on counter terrorism
speaks out their concern.
Significantly,
Modi and Hollande asked for “decisive actions” against the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen while
condemning the Pathankot and Gurdaspur terror strikes and told Pakistan to
bring to justice their perpetrators and those involved in Mumbai 26/11.
Earlier,
President Sarkozy during his 2010 visit strongly condemned Pakistan for
providing a safe haven to terror outfits, stating that this was “unacceptable”.
Mincing no words he added that terrorism emanating from Afghanistan and Pakistan was the major source of
instability in the world and strongly argued against the return of Taliban in
the name of reconciliation. In accordance with this, France
has signalled a temporary freeze on arms sales to Pakistan.
In
the area of space, the two implementing arrangements for cooperation in
definition studies on a future joint thermal infrared earth observation mission
are important as night time monitoring capability is involved.
Hollande
also sees economic opportunities in India
growing at 7% plus at a time when global economy is in bad shape, Europe is in
crisis, China’s
economy is slowing down and the remaining BRICS countries are facing economic
trouble. He recognizes the esteem India
has for France
and the growing affinity between the two countries. Both sides have done well
to actively build on their common interests and mutually benefit from this
joint effort.
However,
the strategic angle of defence, nuclear and terrorism is one side of the story.
Another side explores complementarities in trade and investment, solar thermal
technology, aerospace, counter-terrorism, culture, science & technology and
education. France also
recognizes India’s
pre-eminence and its role for stability and promotion of democracy. In this
respect, even though India
has entered into strategic partnerships with more than a dozen countries in the
last 10 years, its relation with France would always remain special.
----- INFA
(Copyright, India
News and Feature Alliance)
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