France is India's trusted & preferred partner, says Foreign Secretary Kwatra

Lauding the strong Indo-French ties, Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra has said that France has always been India's "trusted and preferred partner". The key comments come even as both countries have been seen expanding ties from people-to-people relations to the defence sector.

Speaking at the French National Day or Bastille Day at the French embassy in New Delhi, Kwatra said, "For India, France has always been a trusted partner, a preferred partner in our efforts to find solutions to not to cooperate in the bilateral sphere but also to the problems of the modern world, such as climate change, biodiversity protection, and counter-terrorism."

Notably, on climate change, it was in Paris in 2015 that International Solar Alliance was launched by Indian PM Narendra Modi and the then French President Francois Hollande. The grouping, which today has over 85 members aims to harness solar energy. On counter-terror front, it was France that has supported India's bid to list many Pakistani-based terrorists at the United Nations Security Council.

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The foreign secretary highlighted that both countries are "best of partners" and have "shared values".

He said, "Values of liberty, equality and fraternity form the basis of the French Republic ideas and with every successive republic, now the 5th one, these have become engrained in the French national identity. At the same time, the Indian civilization and the heritage has been the fountainhead of democratic values and behaviour for the entire mankind"

Indian Prime Minister Modi earlier this year visited France during his three European nation tour. He was the first world leader to meet President Macron in Paris post his election victory. It is expected that the French President will visit Delhi, as early as by the end of this year.

FS Kwatra pointed out that "France was one of our earliest partners on our road to development and today we are celebrating 75 years of diplomatic ties this year. In recent years, our people-to-people contacts have increased through tourism, migration of high skilled professionals and other movement of professionals in the society."

French Development Agency (AFD) committed over Rs 20,000crores to India in 2021 according to French data. In India, AFD is lending its support to public entities in a variety of sectors, such as clean urban transit, water, affordable housing, renewable energy and biodiversity. So far, it has helped finance five metro rail projects in India with a contribution of 1,142 million euros or Rs 9,250 crores to date.

French Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain on the occasion explained how his country has become a destination for Indian students.

He said, "We say it again that Indian students are very welcomed to France, we have currently almost 10,000 and we expect a lot more in coming years.”

He also mentioned defence partnership saying, "It has been 75 years or so of outstanding cooperation between our 2 countries with amazing results, especially in the defence sector. Very proud now that the rafale is flying in the skies of India." France has delivered all the contracted 36 Rafales to India, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. On the national day, the French embassy had also invited popular Indian actor R Madhavan.