What have been the recent milestones in France-India relationship and what role will they play in taking the bilateral ties forward?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Paris on 4 May 2022 was definitely an important moment. Coming just a few days after President Emmanuel Macron’s re-election, it was an exceptional gesture of trust and friendship.

In fact, Prime Minister Modi was the first foreign leader to meet President Macron after the election. It was a highly symbolic meeting—a powerful signal of the two leaders’ shared ambition for the Indo-French strategic partnership. India will feature even higher in the foreign policy priorities of President Macron in his second term. I was there and I can testify to both the personal chemistry between the leaders and the extremely confident and productive nature of their discussions.

In particular, they decided to broaden the scope of our strategic partnership to emerging areas that will define the future of our nations’ independence. The new frontiers of strategic autonomy: new technologies such as artificial intelligence and supercomputing, cybersecurity, energy independence and space security. If our two countries can work together in sensitive areas, it is because of the exceptional trust that we have built together over decades. We have always stood by each other, in good times and bad. In today’s world, this level of strategic trust is a scarce coin. It’s our best asset to strengthen our respective strategic autonomy, promote a rules-based multipolar order, and find collective solutions to global challenges.

What has been the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the relationship, given that India and France have taken different positions on the war?

Our views are actually quite convergent. In May, President Macron and Prime Minister Modi jointly called for an immediate end of hostilities, reiterated the need to respect fundamental principles of international law such as territorial integrity and agreed to work together on mitigating the drastic consequences of the Russian invasion for the rest of the world, particularly food security. Both our countries have condemned the atrocities committed against civilians, for instance in Bucha, and called for an independent investigation.

I believe that if France and India speak with the same voice as this, it can have a real impact. First, because India’s voice matters greatly on the international scene. Second, because President Macron and Prime Minister Modi are amongst the few leaders who speak to both President Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin and can thus help to find a diplomatic solution. Our focus is on what we can achieve together in a tangible way, not on lecturing each other. That’s not how it works between two strategic partners such a