Context:
This editorial is based on the news “What makes the ‘India-France strategic partnership’ tick” which was published in the Hindu. This article highlights the strategic partnership between India and France as the French President made his third visit to India as the chief guest at India’s Republic Day this year.
Origins of Strategic Convergence Between India and France
- Establishment of Strategic Partnership: French President Jacques Chirac was the chief guest at the Republic Day in 1998 when India established its first Strategic Partnership.
- Support on Nuclear Weapon: In a significant statement, Jacques Chirac declared that India’s exclusion from the global nuclear order was an anomaly that needed to be rectified.
- The ‘Strategic Partnership’ was tested when India in May 1998 declared itself a nuclear weapon state and France gave its support.
Location of France
- Security Understanding: France was the first country to open a dialogue with India and displayed a greater understanding of India’s security compulsions.
- Support for Representation in UNSC: France was the first P-5 country to support India’s claim for a permanent seat in an expanded and reformed UN Security Council.
- Own Value of Strategic Autonomy: India and France have valued strategic autonomy, in their own fashion. India adopted non-alignment and after the Second World War, France was one of the founding members of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in 1949.
- After the Cold War ended, France realized the geopolitical focus shifting from the Euro-Atlantic to the Asia-Pacific and made India as its preferred partner in the region.
- Engagement on Equal Terms: Both France and India share a common trait of ‘civilisation exceptionalism’ and pride themselves on their ‘argumentative intellectualism’.
- Though part of the western world, France, as a non-Anglo-Saxon nation, found it easier and more natural to engage with India on equal terms.
Building India-France Strategic Partnership
- Expansion of Relations: From the original three pillars of nuclear, space and defense, the agenda expanded to include counter-terrorism, intelligence sharing and cyber-security issues.
- Convergence on Global Challenges: Such as climate change, reform of multilateral development institutions, globally beneficial Artificial Intelligence, and ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
- Expanding Defense Relations: Joint exercises between the navies, air forces and the armies were instituted in 2001, 2004 and 2011, respectively.
- Scorpene submarines, Rafale aircraft, H125 civilian helicopters, C-295 military transport aircraft, technology sharing memoranda of understanding and acquisitions of short-range missiles and radar equipment.
- India-France Defence Industrial Road map, Collaboration between Safran, the Defence Research and Development Organisation and its Gas Turbine Research Establishment for aircraft engines for India’s fifth generation aircraft with 100% transfer of technology.
- Collaboration on the Space Domain: It began in the 1960s with French assistance to set up the Indian launch facility at Sriharikota.
- Cooperation and joint missions of ISRO and the French Space Agency (CNES).
- With France converting its air force into the French Air and Space Force and India setting up the Defence Space Agency, the two ministries of defense are looking to work together in optimizing space domain awareness.
Broadening and Deepening the India-France Strategic Partnership
- The joint working groups covering agriculture, environment, civil aviation, IT and telecom, urban development, transportation, culture and tourism have been set up over the years.
- On Education: The growing number of Indian students going to France for higher education with a target of 30,000 by 2030.
- The operationalisation of the Young Professionals Scheme under the Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement.
- On Jobs & Companies: There are nearly 1,000 French companies in India including 39 of the CAC 40 (‘the most influential benchmark of performance in the French economy’) while nearly 150 Indian businesses have established a presence in France.
Conclusion
Strategic Partnership does not require convergence on all issues but sensitivity so that differences, where these exist, are expressed in private and not publicly. This is where India-France ties, nurtured over the last quarter century, reflect maturity and resilience.
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February 1, 2024
