India-France Relationship - Rising Significance

What is the issue?

• PM Modi makes an official state visit to France on French President Emmanuel Macron’s invitation for a bilateral summit and to participate in the G7 Summit.
• In this backdrop, here is an overview of India-France ties and its rising significance in the current global scenario.

How has India-France ties been?

• For nearly four decades, successive French presidents have made repeated efforts to elevate the engagement with India to a higher level.
• On the other hand, India was preoccupied with other major powers as the 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.

How is India-France relationship currently?

• Many pending issues relating to Europe were sorted out during 2014-19.
• The boosting of ties with France was an important feature of Modi’s foreign policy in the first term.
• The PM’s summit and participation in the G-7 outreach now is a significant mark in bilateral strategic partnership.
• [The bilateral strategic partnership was unveiled more than two decades ago in 1998.]

Why is it more significant now?

• 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.

What are the emerging challenges for India in this regard?

• China - The rapid rise of China has altered the balance of power in India’s neighbourhood, causing much concern.
• Russia - In the last few years, Russia has been drawing steadily closer to China.
• This is not defined by any problem between Russia and India, but Russia’s larger global calculus.
• However, Russia’s deeper economic and political relationship with China would only make it harder for India to rely on the former to balance the latter.
• U.S. - The 1990s were turbulent years for India and the U.S., with differences over non-proliferation and Kashmir issues.
• However, the two sides settled into a period of stable and expanding partnership under the presidencies of George Bush and Barack Obama lasting from 2001-2017.
• Now, with Trump’s Presidency, there are unexpected turns in American domestic politics.
• Clearly, this has begun to produce complications for India on a range of issues from bilateral trade to regional and global affairs.
• These challenges are much the common challenges for many nations other than India.

How could these be dealt with?

• India and France see that strengthening bilateral cooperation and building coalitions with like-minded countries is critical for the protection of their long-term interests.
• The new imperatives driving India and France have manifested themselves in a five-fold agenda for Modi and Macron.
• Advanced technologies - 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.
• Artificial intelligence and digital revolution are other potential areas.
• Enhancing bilateral cooperation in these strategic sectors is of significance now.
• Defence – Next is the new commitment to go beyond the buyer-seller relationship in the field of weapons procurement.
• India comes up with clear policies for making arms in India.
• With this, the synergies between India’s large defence market and the French strengths in armament production can offer much.
• Political cooperation - Political cooperation between India and France is relatively new.
• It 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; taking this forward would be crucial now.
• Regional cooperation - The relationship between India and France has gone beyond the bilateral to focus on the regional.
• It has been agreed to intensify maritime and naval cooperation in the Indian Ocean and more broadly the Indo-Pacific.

• This offers much for maritime governance, oceanographic research, interoperability between their armed forces, capacity building in the littoral, etc.
• Global agenda-setting - After their joint efforts to limit climate change and develop the Solar Alliance, India and France have turned to more ambitious ideas.
• The road map on cybersecurity and digital technology issued by Modi and Macron provides the framework for long-term cooperation on a set of issues.

What is the 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.

Source: The Hindu