Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
7
The Indo-French Strategic Dialogue:
Bilateralism and World Perceptions
JEAN-LUC RACINE
In his concluding address to a seminar on 'India and France in a Multipolar
World' organized in February 2000 in New Delhi, French Minister of Foreign
Affairs Hubert Védrine, after recalling the main initiatives taken by both
countries during the past two years for developing their bilateral relations, took
care to locate them in a larger, global framework: 'It was high time that our two
countries, both which are committed to making their own assessments of world
relations and autonomous decision-making with regard to the major issues
affecting the planet, take the time for an in-depth dialogue. A start has been
made. The benefits are obvious. We must continue.'
This study will try to evaluate the rationale and the content of this dialogue,
and to assess the benefits it generates for both countries in light of the
expectations both sides may entertain. The historical background of the bilateral
relationship will be quickly recalled in section I, before giving emphasis in
section II to the developments which marked the 1990s, particularly the French
presidential visit to India in 1998.
Section III will focus on the strategic dialogue which developed after France
had shown a greater understanding of India's open nuclearization than most
Western countries.
Two regional policies, regarding Kashmir and the Indian Ocean, will draw our
attention in section IV.
Section V will address the unmet Indian expectations, the first of them,
besides the limited enhancement of economic relations, being the issue of dual
technology constraining a possible cooperation in nuclear energy. The last
section will comment on the shared quest for multipolarity.
French immediate geopolitical interests in South Asia are not the most
important for Paris, which has nevertheless developed in recent years a special
relationship with India. Besides the search for new markets, is the main rationale
at play a principled quest for a more balanced world order, moving a relatively
small but powerful country to acknowledge the need to accommodate the billion-
plus India in global geopolitics? What is New Delhi, on its own, looking for in
Paris? Was it, after the nuclear tests, a way to avoid diplomatic isolation?
