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Primakov, but the Indian administration is certainly concerned by the substance
and the ambitions of the Atlantic Alliance, now that the Cold War is over.
In this regard, France may advance her good relations with Moscow (despite
problems over Chechnya), and her endeavor for strengthening the links between
Russia and the European Union. The question remains asked however in New
Delhi: who is defining the rules regarding sovereignty in the Balkans, or for that
matter in the world at large? India has not participated in the 1991 Gulf War, and
did not appreciate the recourse to referendum in East Timor.
French authorities did their best in offering India a comforting interpretation
of the EU-NATO involvement in Kosovo (France was the European country
engaging the largest forces in the conflict). They clarified three points, related to
(i) the necessity to intervene, (ii) the respective role of Europe and the US, (iii)
the lessons to be drawn. To quote the French Minister of Foreign Affairs: 'Even
we French agreed to a NATO operation because doing nothing would have been
worse. But it wasn't NATO which used us, it was we who used NATO as an
instrument. We clearly said at that time that it was an exception and not a
precedent.' 63
India's reading of the NATO and OSCE intervention in Macedonia, in the
summer of 2001, appears quite different from what it was two years before,
perhaps not just because the sovereignty issue in this case is less a matter of
controversy. After September 11, India has not opposed the US intervention in
Afghanistan, nor the NATO members' limited forces involvement, the UN
resolution permitting them being obviously not the only criterion considered in
this regard.
The debates raised by the Kosovo episode drive us to our third point. The Indo-
French dialogue is of particular interest for it analyses global issues. Between
1997 and 2002, France happens to have had a Minister of Foreign Affairs who
did not 'simply' carry on his task. Hubert VĂ©drine was also engaged, text after
text, speech after speech, in shaping a diplomatic doctrine addressing the new
configurations and the global challenges faced by the nation states and the
multilateral UN system.
At the same time, the BJP-led Indian government was redefining the basis of
its own foreign policy. In a recent topic, Defending India, the Minister of
External Affairs, Jaswant Singh, discarded the Nehruvian policy described as
'idealistic romanticism', and preached realpolitik . 64 The Indo-French dialogue in
foreign affairs is therefore rich in intellectual content, and addresses some of the
decisive issues of the present world. If both sides would recognize that the key
objective of a foreign policy is the defence or the advancement of national
interest, both would admit as well that this concept of national interests can no
more be totally self-defined.
France struggles for keeping her rank in the world, but in the meantime works
for the emergence of a European pole. India longs for being acknowledged as a
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