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Apparent coincidences and overwhelming pressures of the external mien determine
the importance accorded to a country by a foreign policy agenda. On many of
those indices, France and India do not necessarily feature on each other’s order
of priority. France does not appear naturally on the Indian strategic radar, and
similarly, unless it pertains to Indo-centric issues, India does not feature
immediately in Paris’ strategic motivations. The strategic relationship
envisaged by President Chirac in the late 1990s, therefore, would appear a well
thought out and deliberate departure from inherent habits and past practices.
Except for one fundamental truth, viz., despite vastly differing trajectories of
growth, the contexts of development in these two functioning democracies that
encompass multicultural societies have been astonishingly similar. The need to
fortify their defences while negotiating the complicated matrix of domestic
compulsions and international obligations is where India and France have found
their undeniable commonality of purpose.
While the instances of a flourishing partnership based on appreciating the
circumstance of each other and complimenting the other’s needs are several, the
two singularly vital pillars of the Indo-French cooperation have been the fields
of defence cooperation and that of civil nuclear energy.
Defence Cooperation
What accords novelty to the defence cooperation between India and France is the
commitment by France to the transfer of technology that complements the Indian
Government’s policy of ‘indigenisation’ of defence production and also
completely conforms to the need for autonomy and safety of supplies required by
India for long-term military programmes. An instance of cooperation between
Indian and French defence firms is the development of the engine of the
helicopter ‘Shakti’ involving Turbomeca and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
Similarly, six Scorpene submarines have been built by Mazagon Docks Ltd and ACNS
in order to equip the Indian Navy and the Mirage 2000s of the IAF to optimise
their operational capacity. Notably, under the contract for the production of
Scorpene submarines, France transfers all the technologies and the know-how used
to build it to India and India is able to fully use and master these
technologies, the supplies and equipment that go along with them as the process
of production. The development of a class of nuclear submarines, which India has
been very keen to develop indigenously, could serve as a worthy platform of
cooperation based on this arrangement. Development of the Kaveri engine and the
short range surface-to-air missiles (SR-SAM) would also be operationalising this
arrangement of technology transfer, as would the most recent addition to the
impressive list of defence cooperation that has been the Indian Air Force’s
purchase of 126 Rafale warplanes from arms manufacturer Dassault, which at €9
billion is the biggest defence contract currently being negotiated. In addition
to addressing India’s long-term strategic requirements, this arrangement affords
New Delhi the chance to expand its profile through the export of these jointly
developed products.
Civil Nuclear Cooperation
Civil nuclear cooperation forms the second bedrock of the strategic partnership
between India and France. Energy security and autonomy are cardinal principles
in both the Indian and French list of imperatives. Civil nuclear energy presents
itself as an answer to both these requirements, and therein lies the value of
the cooperation in the field. France has the significant advantage of being both
a supplier of uranium as well as a part of India’s nuclear commerce by way of
the development of civil nuclear installations in India, which stands as a
market that can no longer be ignored. It is an ode to France’s continuing
commitment to the Indian cause that despite NSG rules, Paris remained
unconstrained in selling nuclear Enrichment and Reprocessing (ENR) items and
technology in a manner consistent with its national law and bilateral
agreements. So much so that the French delegation at the NSG meeting in June
2011 inserted a verbal reservation to the new ENR guidelines questioning their
applicability to India. The Indian Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) received the first
batch of 60 tonnes of uranium from AREVA in March 2008.
The flagship initiative under this cooperation (especially with the commercial
concern of AREVA) today is the €7 billion framework agreement that was signed in
2010 for two EPRs (1650 MWe each) at Jaitapur, 400 kilometres south of Mumbai,
Maharashtra. The project, however, has run into turbulence over protests by the
local communities that fear a Fukushima like rerun. President Hollande’s France,
however, has been a worthy partner that has made all possible effort to allay
the fears of the Indian population on the issue by sharing with the Indian
establishment the findings of the French Nuclear Safety Authority’s (ASN’s)
additional safety assessments of all nuclear facilities post the disaster at
Fukushima. The key safety features of the EPR are the core catcher, the
associated cooling water systems and a sealed containment vessel above – all
specific features that render the Jaitapur project a safe one that has inherent
incorporations of safety without any additional cost. Bernard Bigot, the
Chairman of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, has
also committed to providing training and expertise to the human resource to be
engaged at the Jaitapur plants as also the other nuclear installations. Possible
areas of cooperation under the civil nuclear field that could be considered
include: research on safety and security; waste management; use of nuclear
energy for applications other than electricity, such as nuclear medicine,
radiotherapy, irradiation for agricultural purposes; the production of
higher-yielding and disease resistant crops gained through radiation-induced
mutations; the improvement of livestock and agricultural systems through the
eradication of insect pests; industrial radiography; gauging applications and
mineral analysis; and, nuclear desalination which through the employment of
Isotope hydrology can also be used for better management of water resource
specific issues et cetera.
AFD’s role in Bilateral Cooperation
A related parallel in this multi-faceted bilateral relationship has developed by
way of development cooperation through the French initiative of Agence Francaise
and Development (AFD) in India. The AFD mandate consists of financial and
technical assistance to the Government of India, its regional states, its city
councils and public enterprises (PSUs), so as to contribute to the sustainable
management of global public goods. What this initiative very ably does is invest
and propel the one sector of the Indian state that undoubtedly needs all the
supplementary assistance it can get, namely, infrastructure. The creation of
public good as a country like France appreciates all too well, is in those
categories and by way of substantive support and encouragement to the Indian
public sector that the AFD brings tangible benefits of the mutual cooperation to
the fore. While aiding the cause of infrastructural development, attuning
India’s manufacturing sector to the challenge is France that can bring its
expertise and partake in for the mutual benefit of both. Clearly, AFD is in a
unique position to effect that change.
The Indo-French dynamic would stand the test of time and flourish once it builds
on these existent pillars of cooperation while taking cognisance of the myriad
other areas of collaboration that the spirit of human innovation and national
imperatives can definitively offer. Such a manifestation alone would consolidate
a form of cooperation that is decidedly strategic and distinctly sustainable.
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