Modi’s France visit to deepen India’s ties with Europe

Narendra Modi’s ongoing visit to France is part of a larger plan to shift Europe from the edges of India’s foreign policy to a key priority.

Amidst the pomp and pageantry of the Bastille Day Parade in Paris, it is likely to be overlooked that prime minister Narendra Modi’s ongoing visit to France is part of a larger plan to shift Europe from the edges of India’s foreign policy to a key priority, with the war in Ukraine showing no signs of being contained. In the excitement about “Make in India” of vital defence
equipment with French participation and agreement on significant arms deals, it may not be noticed that Franco-Indian relations have gone beyond the bilateral: they are already trilateral and could soon be plurilateral.

As Modi’s oratory wowed France’s 109,000-strong Indian community, the significance of the venue where he addressed ethnic Indians may have been lost on his audience back home. The resurgence of Ile Seguin – French for Seguin Island – which is Europe’s newest multicultural venue on a continental scale offers valuable lessons for India as it attempts to transition its urban spaces into smart cities and reduce the negative sides of unplanned human habitats.

Redefining Ties

Let us take these aspects of Modi’s state visit one by one. First, can Macron put India on the centre-stage of Europe, the way China was for the last two decades? Will Europe look at India in a new light in the context of a breakdown in its centuries-old, historic ties with Russia, caused by Vladimir Putin’s policies?

In 1991, when India was forced to pawn its reserve gold and later, as finance minister Manmohan Singh unleashed a wave of liberalisation, the Europeans became the earliest cheerleaders of those reforms. Germany, which regained its position as Europe’s most powerful country following reunification with the former Communist East Germany, took the lead under its visionary Chancellor Helmut Kohl in forging expanded relations with India. For several years, Bonn, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich were the places to go to for New Delhi in search of technology, business partnerships, investments, banking and best corporate practices. France and the United Kingdom followed but remained in distant second or third places. A decade later, as the United States of America and India ceased to be estranged democracies, and the European Union implemented its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), India’s European connections receded to the background.

Simultaneously, Europeans found it easier to use Russia’s cheap energy and tap China’s then-emerging market for their prosperity. Fighting tiresome, losing battles with India’s red tape, corruption and entrenched statist attitudes that were leftovers from the old days of the licence-permit raj was more difficult. The war in Ukraine has been a wake-up call for Europe in
realising that it can no longer take cheap Russian energy for granted. Expanding on the lessons learnt from Putin’s Russia, Europe now wants to cut its reliance on the Chinese market. Repeating the experience in the 1990s, Europe is again looking at India as an option. Vice versa, India wants to widen its choices in Europe. Notwithstanding lip service to the bonhomie and paeans to old friendships, the reality is that India’s ties with Europe have frayed, except with France.

Stepping Stone

Therefore, Modi and his host, French president Emmanuel Macron, discussed how France can be a launching pad for India’s re-engagement of Europe. Within the Continent, being India’s partner in this effort can only help France. Three decades ago, aligning with India to regain New Delhi’s foothold in the region helped Singapore to enhance its bargains within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Similar plans have been made in the Élysée Palace this week, but as they say, the proof of the pudding will come in the eating.

In July 2022, senior officials from India, France and the United Arab Emirates, met to discuss “focal points” on which the three countries could work together “in the Indo-Pacific region and explore potential areas oftrilateral cooperation.” Once broad agreement was reached on the contours of such cooperation, foreign ministers of the three countries had an extended telephone conversation on February 4 this year on how to advance the idea. The very next day, foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra was in Paris for a second focal points meeting of what has become an institutionalised “India-France-UAE Trilateral Dialogue.” Maritime security, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, blue economy, regional connectivity, cooperation in multilateral fora, energy, food security, innovation and startups, supply chain resilience and cultural cooperation are now on the agenda of this trilateral dialogue. Partly, this explains Modi’s surprise announcement before departure that he will stop over in Abu Dhabi on his way back from Paris. There, he will brief Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE president, on his talks with Macron in the context of this trilateral engagement.

The last aspect is about the lessons for India from Ile Seguin. In 2005, Renault’s car manufacturing factory on Seguin Island was dismantled: it was an emblem of French manufacturing capabilities. To compensate for the feeling of loss among Parisians, the Department of Hauts-de-Seine in charge of the area promised a cultural space of the highest world standards in place of the factory. Land for the project was given to the department at a nominal value of one euro. A public-private partnership was created for its construction. La Seine Musicale – Musical Seine River, as it translates – is the outcome of this transition. It is Europe’s newest cultural icon. When Mumbai’s famous textile factories went into disuse, there was hardly any meaningful discussion on what to do with such industrial wasteland. Only a part of such space has been put to modern urban use. Perhaps Modi’s
impressions from La Seine Musicale will prompt him to send India’s urban planners to Ile Seguin to study how they could replicate the French experience.

KP Nayar has extensively covered West Asia and reported from Washington as a foreign correspondent for 15 years. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.