India’s national security advisor Ajit Doval met French defence Sebastien Lecornu and discussed a range of issues of mutual interest, including global, regional and bilateral security-related subjects. During the meeting, particular emphasis was laid on research and development and manufacturing in line with requirements of future wars, according to officials familiar with the matter.
The duo highlighted the need for an action-oriented and time-bound approach in line with the visions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron. Both sides were also able to jointly strategise and identify priority areas for co-development in line with Modi government’s Make-in-India policy.
“Special attention would be paid to cooperation in security related aspects of the global commons including Space, Cyber and Maritime to ensure peace, stability in the Indo-Pacific,” people cited above said.
On Monday, defence minister Rajnath Singh and his French counterpart attended the 4th India-France Annual Defence Dialogue in New Delhi. The two leaders discussed a wide range of bilateral, regional, defence and defence industrial cooperation issues were discussed. Singh and Lecorno reviewed the ongoing military-to-military cooperation which has increased substantially in recent years, according to defence minstry’s release.
They also discussed means to strengthen maritime cooperation and increase the scope and complexity of bilateral exercises. The two side noted that India and France successfully held their bilateral Air Exercise ‘Garuda VII’ at Air Force Station, Jodhpur.
“The Ministers recognised their convergences on number of strategic & defence issues and shared the commitment to work together on enhancing cooperation in bilateral, regional and multilateral fora, with a focus on the Indo-Pacific region. France is the current chair of Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) and Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) and both countries cooperate closely in these fora,” the statement read.
