India France -Defence ties

Why in news?

French Defence Minister Florence Parley had recently visited India.

What are the significance of Indo-France ties?

• France is a major partner for India in developing various key military platforms including the Scorpène submarines.
• There are various ties in defence equipment and industry cooperation between the two countries.
• France is one of the Industrial and technological partnership under the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
• Both countries are actively exploring measures to facilitate operational level interactions between their respective armed forces.

What are areas discussed during French minister’s visit?

• French minister visited India to take part in Foundation laying ceremony of Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd.’s manufacturing facility.
• A range of measures to expand military to military ties were discussed.
• Enhancing the scope of their joint exercises, in particular the Varuna naval exercise scheduled in early 2018, were agreed upon.
• This meet is also likely to push for a follow on order of additional Rafael fighter jets, after the delivery of 36 jets under Rs 58,000 crore deal finalised last year.
• Transfer of critical technology for various defence projects,in particular maritime security, joint exercises of the armed for counter-terrorism are key areas discussed.

What are the advantages for India?

• Parley’s visit is aimed at strengthening all aspects of France’s “fast developing” defence cooperation with India, its foremost Asian strategic partner.
• The two sides also agreed to expand counter-terror cooperation and felt that a lot more can be done in the Indo-Pacific region, where China was trying to expand its footprint.
• Interestingly, the Trump Administration has also been favouring deeper Indo-US collaboration on security in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Due to the need for greater maritime domain awareness, India and France will further expand information sharing arrangements.

Source: Economic times, The Hindu