4th India-France Defense Dialogue was held in India

4th India-France Defense Dialogue was held in India.Both countries discussed Defence Industrial Cooperation with a focus on ‘Make in India’.A wide range of bilateral, regional and defence industrial cooperation issues were discussed during the dialogue.Both sides reviewed the ongoing military-to-military cooperation, which has increased substantially in recent years.They recognised their convergences on a number of “strategic and defence issues and shared the commitment to work together on enhancing cooperation in bilateral, regional and multilateral fora, with a focus on the Indo-Pacific region.

Indian Ocean Region

• The discussions ranged from enhancing cooperation in areas of mutual interest to the maritime challenges in the IOR (Indian Ocean Region).
• France reaffirmed its engagement in the Indo-Pacific and India’s centrality in the French strategy for the region.
• France is the current chair of Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) and Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) and both countries cooperate closely in these fora.

India-France Strategic Relations

• France was one of the first countries with which India signed a “strategic partnership” after the end of the Cold War, in January 1998.
• France was one of the very few countries to support India’s decision to test nuclear weapons in 1998.

Defence Cooperation

The three services have regular defence exercises; viz.

1. Exercise Shakti (Army)
2. Exercise Varuna (Navy)
3. Exercise Garuda (Air Force)

Garuda VII was recently held in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.India and France had signed a Euro 7.87 billion inter-governmental agreement (IGA) in 2016 for 36 Rafale multi-role fighter jets in fly-away condition,France has delivered 35 Rafale jets to India till July 2022.India entered into a contract with a French firm to build six Scorpene submarines in India’s Malegaon dockyards through a technology-transfer arrangement in 2005.The two countries also signed the Agreement regarding the Provision of Reciprocal Logistics Support.This agreement will help to facilitate the replenishment of fuel, rations, spares, and berthing and maintenance for the other nations’ warships, military aircraft and troops during routine port calls, as well as during Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR).

Bilateral trade and Economic relations

• The India-France Administrative Economic and Trade Committee (AETC) provides an appropriate framework to assess and find ways to further promote bilateral trade and investment as well as to speed up the resolution of market access issues to the benefit of economic operators
• France is the 11th largest foreign investor in India with a cumulative investment of USD 10.31 billion from April 2000 to June 2022 which represents 1.70% of the total FDI inflows into India according to statistics provided by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
• Aeronautics account for 50% of France’s total exports to India. French imports from India have also increased by 39% year-on-year (7% compared to 2019).