Emmanuel Bonne, the French President’s visiting diplomatic advisor, will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi today as part of a strategic dialogue with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval aimed at making France a key partner in the “Make in India” campaign to manufacture much-needed aircraft engines and long-range submarines.
The 36th India-France Strategic Dialogue will take place this afternoon and will be followed by other high-level exchanges in March. Bonne will also meet with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
While the Modi government remains tight-lipped about the talks, India is increasing its self-reliance in weapons and hardware platforms with the support of major allies such as France in the face of escalating militarization by China, while once-essential supplier Russia is mired in the Ukraine crisis.
India is seeking not just a complete transfer of technology for the manufacture of aircraft engines to power its indigenous twin-engine fighter, but also the design and development of next-generation high-powered military and civilian engines for future fighter and transport platforms. Already, the Tata Group has partnered with Airbus to produce the C295 tactical transport aircraft in Vadodara, Gujarat. A cooperative venture with France will expand this line into other civilian and military aircraft manufacturers.
With the Kalveri (French Scorpene) class submarine line delivering its final submarine this year, India is looking to France to continue constructing diesel attack submarines at Mumbai dockyards with indigenous air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems for long endurance.
While progress on both aircraft engines and long-range submarines is expected this year, the two strategic allies will address the Indo-Pacific, with France willing to assist India in ocean bed mapping and underwater drones and sensors. Given the PLA’s belligerence in the Indo-Pacific, which includes a rapidly developing warship and nuclear submarine force, India and its allies will need to be prepared for any emergency since the Indian Ocean will be the next frontier.
The two allies have joined forces with the UAE to provide marine domain awareness and security from the east coast of Africa to the far Pacific. Another significant area is where India and France have collaborated to exchange technology to counter China’s rapid advances in space.
Doval and Bonne will also discuss increased radicalization in the area, notably in the Af-Pak region, with the establishment of the Taliban, as well as terrorism emanating from Pakistan with India as the objective. The twin terror assaults in Rajouri last month were carried out by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) gang, who targeted innocent minority Hindus.
The terror strikes demonstrated that proscribed groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and LeT are flourishing under Pakistan’s deep state, to target India, particularly Jammu and Kashmir. Despite China’s constant assistance to Islamabad, India was able to blacklist numerous Pakistan-based terrorists by the 1267 Sanctions Committee thanks to the support of critical allies such as France and the United States. Furthermore, at the request of Pakistan, France, and the United States opposed Chinese attempts to identify Indian engineers working in Afghanistan as terrorists.
Doval will brief Bonne on the PLA posture along the 3488 km Line of Actual Control (LAC) during the strategic meeting, and the two leaders will also discuss how to bring both Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table to conclude a conflict that began in February 2022.
