Indo-French Ties
By Amrita Banerjee
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
(The author is with School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi)