With recent bilateral diplomatic meets, India and France have decided to strengthen cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
In the context of the developing Indo-Pacific quadrilateral grouping of India, US, Japan and Australia, it is essential for India and France to take forward the bilateral relationship with a new vigour.
How influential is France in the IOR?
France is one of the notable countries with maritime traditions that shaped the contemporary Indo-Pacific power relations.
With a colonial inheritance, it has a considerable influence through overseas territories in the Western Indian Ocean and South Pacific.
Its military facilities in the Indo-Pacific include those in the Reunion Island, Djibouti and the United Arab Emirates.
France also has a variety of coordination mechanisms in the Pacific with the United States, Japan, Australia, Britain and New Zealand.
In addition, it plays a lead role in the Indian Ocean Commission.
It is an intergovernmental organization that brings together the island states of Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar, Comoros and the French territory of Reunion.
What lies before India?
India and France have long held partnerships in traditional areas of high-technology and defence cooperation and recently, climate change.
The overall geopolitical scenario is changing with the rise of China, renewed tensions between Russia and Europe, uncertainty in the US political trajectory and loosening of the old alliances.
It becomes essential in this context that India and France started offering a strong regional dimension to their strategic partnership.
India and France have a potential scope to work together in the IOR, especially in the Western Indian Ocean.
With Indo-Pacific quadrilateral grouping in the developmental stage, it is in India's interests to build its bilateral security cooperation.
This should include both the members of the quad as well as other partners in the Indo-Pacific including France.
India needs to intensify the exchange of maritime intelligence, negotiate agreements to share naval infrastructure facilities and put in place logistical support arrangements.
