The expansive prospect for India’s strategic partnership with France underlines the growing importance of middle power coalitions that transcend the traditional alliance frameworks and new geopolitical fault lines. Discuss (200 words)
Refer – The Hindu
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 7 years
KEY POINTS
Old frameworks
· France is one of the long standing military allies of the United States.
· Russia has been a longstanding and time-tested partner for India.
New fault lines
· America’s uncertain external orientation
· China’s effort to reshape the global order
Transcending partnership
· France is looking beyond NATO to forge security partnerships with Asian democracies like India, transcending traditional frameworks.
· Delhi, in turn, appreciates that its quest for a larger role in the world can’t be founded in exclusive security partnerships with either Russia or America.
· Amidst the new fault lines in the global world order, second-tier powers like India and France seek a greater say in world affairs through more intensive collaboration.
· In taking the lead on mitigating climate change, through the International Solar Alliance, India and France are demonstrating their potential for shared global leadership.
Prospects of Indo-France coalition
· By taking more responsibilities in partnership with each other, Delhi and Paris improve their relative national positions in a changing world.
· The future of India-France coalition underlines the importance of middle power coalition especially in the Maritime security of Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
· Their shared maritime vision seeks to uphold the law of the sea in the Indian Ocean, prevent the kind of military unilateralism that has come to grip the Western Pacific, secure the sea lines of communication, respond to humanitarian disasters and promote sustainable blue economy.
Implications globally
· The Joint Vision Statement on the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is clearly aimed at countering China’s growing presence in the region.
· The International Solar Alliance (ISA), recommitment to starting the Jaitapur nuclear power plant, and joint ventures on climate change cooperation are reactions to the U.S. abdicating its role by announcing its pullout from the Paris accord.
· The “reciprocal logistics support” agreement – a “golden step” in defence cooperation, is a signal to Russia and to the U.S.-led alliance that partnered in the “Quadrilateral”, that both New Delhi and Paris feel the need to diversify strategic postures beyond their current choices.
· By bringing 61 countries into the ISA, India and France are proposing an alternative leadership model for the less developed world, challenging the geopolitical power structure configured around fossil-fuel energy resources.
