News Excerpt: 

The visit of French President Emmanuel Macron as the chief guest at the Indian Republic Day celebrations opens various opportunities for Indo-French defence, space, nuclear relations.

Recent Indo-French developments in strategic partnership: 

• During the Indian PM's visit to France this year, both countries signed the Horizon 2047 road map.
• The road map strengthened a strategic move by both countries to come together in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. 
• A commitment to “work together to secure their own economic and security interests” in the region, by creating a bulwark against Chinese influence.
• The plan has also led to investments from France now beginning to reach India in higher numbers.
• According to the French Embassy in India, more than 600 French subsidiaries with over 1,000 offices and facilities from a wide spectrum of sectors already exist in India and employ about 400,000 people.

DEFENCE:

• This visit could see a formal “defence industrial road map” being adopted by both nations. 
• The policy could catapult Indian defence producers into the global league by allowing them access to European technology and exposure to France’s list of clients in APAC and beyond.
• India first ordered a batch of 36 Rafale multi-role fighter jets from France in 2016, all of which have been delivered between July 2020 and April 2022.
• In July 2023, the government approved an order of 26 additional Rafale jets for the Indian Navy and six Scorpène submarines.
• The flurry of defence orders from India has bolstered France’s position as the world’s third-largest arms exporter, behind the US and Russia. 
• Between 2018 and 2022, France’s share of the global arms trade increased to 11% compared with 7.1% over the previous four-year period, according to an annual Stockholm International Peace Research Institute report (SIPRI).
• Defence purchases have given way to France, becoming one of India’s key partners in developing a self-reliant defence industrial and technological base.
• Memoranda of understanding signed between defence public sector undertakings of both countries have stood out for their tall goal of manufacturing submarines and warships in the docks of Mumbai and Kolkata for export to third countries.
• France has also allowed its defence major Safran to jointly design, develop, test, manufacture, and certify an engine with Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) to power India’s twin-engine advanced combat aircraft and the twin-engine deck-based fighter for Indian aircraft carriers. 
• They also decided to support industrial cooperation for motorising heavy-lift helicopters under the Indian Multi-Role Helicopter programme with Safran Helicopter Engines.

NUCLEAR:

• France was the first country with which India entered into an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation following the waiver given by the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group, enabling India to resume full civil nuclear cooperation with the international community.

• In July 2023, both countries agreed to speed up talks on the Jaitapur nuclear plant project. 
• With an installed capacity of 9.6 gigawatt electrical, the proposed plant in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district would be the most powerful nuclear power plant globally. 
• It would meet the annual consumption needs of 70 million households and restrict an estimated 80 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

SPACE:

• France’s national space agency - the National Centre for Space Studies - and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have created an Indo-French working group on India’s human spaceflight mission Gaganyaan.
• The French space agency may also get to test key propulsion technology that Gaganyaan is dependent upon.
• Both countries signed key pacts that formalised a joint vision for space cooperation in various areas of space exploration in 2018 and established a bilateral strategic dialogue to enhance coordination between their space and defence agencies in 2022.