India, France Ties: RSTV - Big Picture

India, France Ties RSTV –Download PDF Here

Rajya Sabha TV programs like ‘The Big Picture’, ‘In Depth’ and ‘India’s World’ are informative programs that are important for UPSC preparation. In this article, you can read about the discussions held in the ‘Big Picture’ episode on “India, France Ties” for the IAS exam.

Guests: Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, Foreign Affairs Editor, Hindustan Times;

              Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, Former Ambassador;

              Prof. Gulshan Sachdeva, Centre for European Studies, JNU.

 Anchor: Frank Rausan Pereira

Context:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France reasserted a very close, substantive and truly strategic partnership we have with France for many years now.

India – France Relations:

• When ‘Non Alignment’ used to be our foreign policy, France helped us continue nuclear power generation at the Tarapur Reactor, when the US refused to supply heavy water.
• At several instances, France had taken position supportive to India when Britain, with which India has far more traditional ties, remained Perfidious Albion (treacherous approach).
• In 1998, India signed the very first strategic partnership with France. Now, India has around 35 strategic partnerships with world powers.
• Some statements made by USA and UK are misguided which may create a negative perception about India, to which India has periodically responded.
• But, France rarely issues irritating comments, in spite of them having a far superior understanding of Indian interests. Further, before they jump into critical comments, they think about the probable consequences to our relationship.
• Indo-French partnership has been very close for quite some time.
• France is a technologically advanced
• Since 1998, the countries have relations in critical areas like defence, technology, trade, investment, etc.

Has France Now Emerged as India’s Best Friend?

• In the past five years, France has deliberately positioned herself with India’s arguments.
• Russia (USSR) has been traditionally the most dependable P5 (UNSC permanent five) vote for India.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the BRICS summit said that even the children in India are aware that Russia is the best friend of India.
• However, Russia is becoming increasingly close to China. Moscow checks with Beijing on any matter the latter has a special interest.
• Further, Russia’s capacity is reducing too (Russian GDP is almost half that of India’s, a lot of their defence technologies are obsolete and there is not much business to business relations other than government deals).
• With respect to the Afghanistan issue, we are on opposite sides.
• So, Russia is a friend only in certain issues and not always.
• US has very good and much improved relations with India.
• But, ultimately a super power like U.S has multiple interests.
• We can never ensure that all of our interests concur with the U.S interests.
• : We have differences about the Afghanistan issue.
• Britain had always been going back and forth when it comes to relations with India.
• It is partly because of their obedience to U.S.
• Further, their global clout is declining, particularly after the initiation of
• China is obviously the only P5 country which is openly hostile to India.
• France has been emerging as a leader in Europe.
• France has followed an independent foreign policy. With the Brexit procedures being worked out, France will have a major role to play in Europe going forward.
• Germany is economically more powerful in the EU, but has been drifting politically and showing reluctance to assert itself geopolitically.
• France, on a whole host of fronts, can fill the ‘best friend’ gap created by the drifting apart of Russia.
• At the same time, they don’t demand India to succumb her interests as the U.S does.

Indo Pacific Factor:

• Indo Pacific is an emerging area where India will have to play a much larger role in the long run.
• The two countries expressed their resolve towards freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific.
• Along with the US, France has a lot of assets in the area.
• France is the only European power that still has the physical military and economic presence in the Indian Ocean, with its own island, naval fleet and about a million citizens.
• France could support India in the long term strategic challenge of the extension of Chinese power into the Indian Ocean region, which India is not very well prepared for.
• The French President had also proposed an Australian-Indian-French trilateral Indian Ocean alliance.

UNSC Reforms:

• UNSC, under chapter 7 of the UN charter is the only UN organ with a teeth.
• France continues to back India getting a permanent seat in the UNSC.
• We had Russia to support us within the UNSC. But their support is no longer automatic.
• We need France to fill the gap.
• However, our quest for permanent membership at the UNSC with a veto is not plausible in the foreseeable future:
• Reforming the UN need a complete change in global power balances.
• Those who have that kind of power will never let go of it, unless compelled to do so.
• P5 members pay only lip service when it comes to India’s demands, and their unity is virtually impossible.
• While we continue our quest with G4 (India, Japan, Germany, and Brazil), even the neighbourhood of each of the G4 members is not really united. Ex.: India is opposed by Pakistan, a Coffee Club

Multilateralism:

• The joint statement released after the meeting said that both India and France were committed towards multilateralism.
• On Afghanistan, they supported an inclusive peace and reconciliation process which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan controlled.
• France was present in Afghanistan as a part of NATO.
• Since the S is slowly withdrawing its presence, France is no longer going to be there.
• France provided the entire submarine fleet of Pakistan. But, only one is functioning and all others have been denied of spare parts, consequently nullifying a naval threat of Pakistan.
• On Iran, they agreed full compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian Nuclear Programme.
• The UN Security Council Resolution 2231 (endorsing the JCPOA on the nuclear program of Iran) was needed to ensure regional and international peace and security.
• Current issues need to be resolved peacefully through dialogue.
• Recent UNSC meeting on Kashmir, which we insist to be an internal matter, resulted in the most important foreign policy challenge for India, at present.
• Pakistan will do everything possible, to muddy the waters.
• However, India continues to receive support, particularly from France in various international platforms.
• Africa is both economically and strategically important to India. We are now the 3^rd largest trading partner of Africa, after China and E.U (we have overtaken Japan and USA). There are opportunities for an Indo-French collaboration in Africa.

Advantages for France:

• France needs a larger economic partner, especially in Asia.
• They are wary of China.
• They need a market for its weapons and nuclear reactors.
• France is among the few countries in the world with an indigenous nuclear reactor capacity.

Challenges:

• France has limitations in the South Asian region.
• Only the UN and to an extent the USA has the actual capacity to function in every part of the world.
• France alone can’t help us in reforming the UNSC. Global power balance need to change completely.
• In a large French speaking portion of the African continent, India has weak presence.
• Perception problems:
• Indians believe that Europe is important, but mainly for economic matters since European interest and capacities are limited with respect to other strategic issues.
• But counter terrorism, de-radicalisation are important for both Europe and India.
• We also think that European countries will always follow the U.S, because of a very strong trans-Atlantic partnership.
• But European countries are also looking for an independent role in international affairs.
• Irritants can arise even between the best of friends.
• The safety factor against differences developing into disputes is to continuously underline friendly, substantial relations.
• Officially, France has only $6 Billion of FDI in India.
• But, a lot of French companies use Indian capital market to raise almost $25 Hence there is need for increasing economic engagement.
• Indian diaspora in France is very small.
• There are a limited number of Indian students because of the language problem.
• Even in the joint statement, there is no mention of any Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
• French nuclear submarine technology is much better than Russia’s. But, our defence partnership is yet to break some barriers.
• In the Kashmir issue, France has supported India in the UNSC.
• But, unlike the U.S and Russia, European countries are very sensitive to human rights violation, which India has to take care of, while handling the Kashmir issue.

Future Prospects:

• The two nations also vowed to fight against violent and hateful online content as they affirmed their commitment to an open and reliable cyberspace.
• There should be collaboration in frontier research areas like Artificial Intelligence (A.I).
• India will be invited to the UNSC when we become a $5 Trillion economy and an appropriate hand in terms of military.
• In the meantime, India needs support from a friend like France at bilateral and multilateral fora.
• Out of the recently announced 18 new embassies, 13 will be in Africa and the bulk of the countries speaks French. France will help us build the presence and influence in such regions.
• India and France should mutually leverage their foreign policies, which are independent from USA, and work for a democratic multilateral world where US, China, etc. would not have any domination.
• We must focus more on broadening the economic relations.
• Emigration of Indians to France should be increased. Already, a large number of tourists from India visit France. France competes with the U.K in terms of number of Indian tourists visiting.
• There should be a movement in the direction of negotiating an FTA.
• India should focus more on making deals related to French nuclear submarine and nuclear aircraft carrier technologies.

Conclusion:

• There is a ‘very rare’ cultural understanding between France and India that cause the Governments to understand each other’s impulses. The meeting between Narendra Modi and Emmanuel Macron nurtured very strong relations and augurs well for India’s support within the P5 of UNSC, as a part of our foreign policy priorities.

To know more about India France relations, click on the linked article.

Also, See:

Read previous RSTV articles here.

India, France Ties RSTV –Download PDF Here