Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
France sticks to the international rules, particularly those related to
nonproliferation. This severe restriction does not prevent however the
development of a growing Indo-French defense relationship.
The Defense Relationship
Meeting once a year, the High Committee for Defense goes beyond exchanges of
views on defense perceptions. One of its three subcommittees conducts a
dialogue on strategic issues, the other two pay attention respectively to military
bilateral relations and to defense equipment. This is on the whole an area where
the bilateral relationship, which has definitely a long history, has known steady
progress, as a cursory look at the calendar of high level visits would confirm.
In January 1999, George Fernandes, on his first trip abroad as Indian Defence
Minister, came to Paris. In May the High Committee for Defense met for the
first time. In September came Air Chief Marshal A.Y.Tipnis, and in December
Chief of Army Staff General V.P.Malik. In February-March 2000, vessels from
the Indian Ocean French Fleet sailed to Mumbai, then to Visakhapatnam, on the
Bay of Bengal, for joint exercises with the Indian Navy, an operation defined in
the Indian press as 'India's first post-Pokhran naval exercise with a UN Security
Council member'.
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In April, General Kelche, French Chief of Defense Staff, was in India,
followed in May by Alain Richard, French Defense Minister, and in July by a
parliamentary mission discussing nuclear and ballistic missile proliferation. In
February 2001, the French Navy was back in India, for the first International
Fleet Review organized off Mumbai's coast. Significantly, the antisubmarine
frigate
Dupleix
and the nuclear submarine
Perle
were present.
Beyond the upgraded visibility of ministers' and military top brass' visits,
what is the substance of the Indo-French defense cooperation? While the broad
geopolitical parameters discussed between the two countries are basically the
preserve of the top-level strategic dialogue, the armed forces and the ministries
involved do carry on their own consultations on military doctrines, in order to
define more precisely the pattern of service to service cooperation.
Posting officers in the partner country is going on, although on a limited way.
More numerous are the experts' missions or the short-term joint exercises. On
the whole, the High Committee for Defense has been able to expand
considerably the number of cooperative actions between the two countries, which
have more than tripled in three years.
One of the most decisive fields of discussion and negotiations is in the area of
defense equipment. If the Indian forces have mostly bought Russian armament
for decades and continue to do so, France has always been an alternative source
of supply, particularly for the Indian Air Force. Today, the scope is not just sales
and delivery, but local construction under license, transfer of technology, joint
