France and the element of enablement: PM Modi's Bastille Day visit

With the Prime Minister’s impending visit, the readily strengthening strategic alliance with France enables India to leverage these ties and seek similar partnerships with other European countries.

- MANISH BARMA & SHREYA SINHA

Images from the Capitol building housing the elected representatives of the US Congress have been the talk across the globe. The enlivening reception accorded to the Indian Prime Minister, was quite unprecedented as far as the recent history of state visits by any leader is concerned. As heartening as they seem, those images must not truncate our collective analysis of another upcoming state visit by the Prime Minister—one which would be more sombre in all likelihood—to France in order to take part in French National Day, popularly known as the Bastille Day. While analysing the current developments, it would serve us well to appraise IndoFrench ties in the backdrop of the Indo-Pacific Region, the conflict in Ukraine and then extrapolate the strategic interests of India within the broader canvas of India-EU relations.

INDO-PACIFIC AND THE SHADOW OF CHINA

As India and France continue to support an inclusive multi-polar order while prioritizing strategic autonomy, in the 36th round of their Strategic Dialogue on 5 January 2023 with Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Bonne, the two countries discussed the roadmap of their partnership in the Indo-Pacific. The partnership between the two is viewed as a practical framework of convergence between major powers in the East and the West. As the Indo-Pacific assumes importance as the centre of geopolitical activity in the world, tension lines that range from economic to environmental, and political to strategic have drawn many actors into the region. Given their common interests and capabilities in the region, the evolving nature of the region’s dynamics necessitates a pragmatic approach to utilize the full potential of their relationship.