President Emmanuel Macron’s two-day visit — he was chief guest at the country’s 75th Republic Day function — has reinforced France’s special place in India’s strategic calculus. The partnership underlined during PM Modi’s visit last year to France, is built on three pillars — deepening cooperation in defence, sustained engagement in global issues, especially in emerging and green technologies, and people-to-people contact. These have emerged stronger after Modi-Macron talks in the past two days.

The two countries have adopted a roadmap for defence industrial production. This cooperation aims to create supply chains that fulfil Delhi’s security needs and provide it with the necessary bandwidth to negotiate partnerships with other countries. The pacts on clean energy and technology take forward the engagement begun on the sidelines of the Paris Climate Pact in 2015 — the International Solar Alliance, an expanding club of nations, is amongst the most tangible outcomes of this collaboration.

In 2021, the two signed a memorandum on green hydrogen, which aims “to bring the French and Indian hydrogen ecosystems together.” Macron’s reiteration of his last year’s commitment to increase the number of students studying in France to 30,000 and give them attractive post-study work visas will also go down well in a country undergoing an educational churn. The Alliance Francaise network will also be strengthened — this will be particularly welcomed by Indian students who often find language a barrier in accessing French higher education institutes, 35 of which find place in the QS ratings.

In recent years, India has inched closer to Washington. France, too, acknowledges the US’s place in the global order. At the same time, the traditional importance that Paris attaches to its strategic autonomy vis-a-vis Washington has earned Delhi’s trust, especially after the French government refused to toe the dominant Western line after India’s nuclear tests in 1998. France recognised India’s strategic importance at a time when other Western powers turned their back on it. In 2019, France blocked China from raising the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council after the abrogation of Article 370. French domestic procedures on defence deals have made the country a reliable defence partner. While pacts with the US are dogged by unpredictability due to Congressional interventions and export control regimes, French deals have no such strings attached.

Modi and Macron also exchanged perspectives on Gaza, Red Sea turmoil and conflict in Ukraine. In recent months, it has become clear that peace in these theatres of conflict will require a multi-pronged effort. The Red Sea is a significant conduit for Indo-European trade and the frailties of a US-led defence against the Houthi attacks are already evident. With Trump’s return to the White House becoming imminent, fears that the US will be a less engaged player on the global stage may not be unfounded. Indo-French collaboration could be among the keys to ensuring stability in a complex geopolitical environment.

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