In a month’s time, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Paris, embracing his role as the guest of honour at France’s annual Bastille Day parade and marking 25 years of strategic partnership between the two countries.
While it may not get the headlines or attention garnered by the Quad, Indo-French relations have grown steadily over the last few decades, both in terms of significance and substance, with one Indian commentator even likening the partnership to the Indo-Soviet compact from the 1970s.
The ties are now also spilling over into “mini-laterals”, like the India-France-UAE joint military exercises that took place for the first time in the Gulf of Oman last week, as well as the India-France-Australia trilateral.
Underpinning this relationship is a shared concern about growing Chinese assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, a region where France considers itself a “resident power”, in part thanks to its overseas territories. Which is why it was so surprising when French President Emmanuel Macron returned from a visit to Beijing early this year appearing to spout Chinese talking points about tensions in the Indo-Pacific and a potential Taiwan crisis.
Some insisted Macron’s actual comments were a bit more nuanced (and reflected a strain of European thought): He reiterated his longstanding call for European strategic autonomy and a need to not be overly dependent…
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