Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
referring to 'cross-border terrorism'. Along with other major countries, France
has never defined Pakistan as a terrorist state, as India was expecting at a time.
India's agenda on terrorism is mostly focused on Pakistan and by implication
on Taliban' Afghanistan, both having been presented by New Delhi does as 'the
single largest gene-pool of global terrorism'.
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The Indian concern about
terrorism has been reiterated consistently, at the highest level, by Indian President
R.K.Narayanan, both during his state visit to Paris in April 2000
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and when he
received the credentials of the new French Ambassador Bernard de Montferrand
four months later.
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Not much was officially said after Home Minister L.K.Advani visited Paris,
and the Interpol headquarters at Lyons, in June 2000. Advani was seeking
support for the India-sponsored convention on international terrorism at the UN,
a step forward from the French proposal for an International Convention for the
Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, adopted by the UN on December
1999.
For years, New Delhi had expected to get from Paris a stronger indictment of
the Pakistan-Taliban-
jihadis
nexus. In the post-September 11 scenario, France
has naturally strongly voiced her condemnation of terrorism targeting India after
the attacks on Srinagar and New Delhi by suicide commandos. The word
'terrorism' itself has found a new recognition in the context of Kashmir. But New
Delhi is certainly not too happy with the way Paris, and the world community at
large, see in Musharraf a Pakistani leader doing his best to contain extremism in
his country. India would like her doubts and distrust regarding the Pakistani
leadership better understood. The Indo-French Joint Working Group on
Terrorism, which met in Paris on 7 September 2001 for the first time, is offering
an additional framework for a sustained dialogue on the point.
The Maritime Dimension
If France has no direct interest in Kashmir, she does have overseas territories in
the Indian Ocean, and in the Pacific Ocean as well. The French fleet cruises in
both of them, and French troops are stationed in Djibouti, on the Gulf of Aden.
India has denounced in the past these legacies of colonial empire, the nuclear test
site of Mururoa (now dismantled) in the Pacific, and the presence in the Indian
Ocean of war vessels from outside powers. Times have changed, and New Delhi
is not unhappy, to say the least, to have joint naval exercises with the French, and
to discuss with them the way to expand her Navy, including its submarine
component, expected to play an enhanced role in India's new nuclear-related
strategy.
The concept of 'expanded neighborhood' underlines the range of Indian
geopolitical and geo-economic interests. It includes, in its maritime dimension,
the entire Indian Ocean, and more particularly its northern waters, the oil sea
