French Minister Likely To Ink New Partnership With ISRO During 3-day India Visit

Source : Republic

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France (Twitter). Image Credit: ANI

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is all set to visit India for his three-day scheduled meeting. This will be the first crucial and physical interaction between India and France since the outbreak of Covid-19. Sources suggest that Indo-Pacific remain the key focus of the discussion.

France’s Foreign Minister will be meeting with top Indian officials including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar. Apart from the Indo-Pacific discussions, it is expected that minister Drian will be officially announcing a merger with the Indo-Pacific Oceans initiative started by PM Modi. Sources also suggest that the minister might stress upon EU Indo-Pacific strategy. The discussion will include joint initiatives that India and France have taken in the past which includes the new trilateral with Australia.

The French minister and Jaishankar will discuss regional and international issues including Myanmar, Iran, and the peace process in Afghanistan. The two will also be discussing how to strengthen relations between the two countries against the Covid-19 situation and on humanitarian grounds which will include topics of youth mobility and cinema.

New joint endeavours

Diplomatic sources suggest that a formal announcement on new joint endeavours during his visit to the ISRO centre in Bangalore and initiate talks on emerging security challenges in space. The French minister will also be taking further talks on civilian nuclear cooperation.

Covid-19 and Climate

The French Foreign minister will also be meeting India’s environment minister Prakash Javedkar and discuss the climate issue. Discussions on how to boost global action for a better climate are expected. The meeting will also involve Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As the world is currently fighting the deadly virus, both countries will be discussing how to make vaccines accessible globally. With this, the main challenges of Covid-19 and 2021 like defending multilateralism with India in UNSC will also be discussed. Last week the joint multi-lateral maritime exercise La Perouse which involved India, France, Japan, and the US had ended. In the coming two weeks, a bilateral Varua exercise involving French aircraft carriers will be held.

The visit is scheduled at a time when India is fighting a new and dangerous wave of Covid-19 where active cases are rising uncontrollably.