Indian and French foreign secys hold startegic talks

Indian and French foreign secys hold startegic talks
SONIA TRIKHA

NEW DELHI, MARCH 2: India’s first woman Foreign Secretary, Chokila Iyer, had her first outing at secretary level talks with her French counterpart today. Iyer and Loic Hennekinne, who is the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France, met today for a round of Foreign Office consultations.

As part of the strategic discussions, India and France discussed the current relations between the major powers in the world. The retaliatory expulsions between Russia and the United States have sparked off concern in the international community.

The issue of the US showing every sign of going ahead with the National Missile Defence programme also came up in the talks. India is opposed to this and Europe, including France, has expressed reservations on the implications of the Nuclear Missile Deal (NMD) or the Theatre Missile Defence system.

India and France share a lot of common ground on long-term strategic interests and these came up for discussion during the talks. The two also conferred on the need for high-level political contacts. Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh will visit Paris in the ``very near future'' and French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin is expected to visit India before the end of the year to carry forward the dialogue between the two nations.

Hennekinne also had a 45-minute meeting with Brajesh Mishra, the National Security Advisor and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, to discuss the strategic implications of the Indo-French relationship. Mishra is also part of a strategic dialogue with Gerard Errera, special envoy of President Jacques Chirac.

Both India and France share a worldview that encourages multipolarity. While the French Secretary General reiterated that France regarded India as a major factor in international politics, the spokesperson in the French Ministry of External Affairs also renewed their support for a permanent place for India in a reformed UN Security Council.

France shared India's concern over the spread of narco-terrorism in the region, and it also backed New Delhi's initiative for a Comprehensive Convention against International Terrorism at the United Nations.

The recent destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan by the Taliban also figured in the talks. Both sides agreed that this act of vandalism was not an isolated event, but flowed from the policies that the Taliban has been pursuing in general.

Today's talks were part of an ongoing engagement with France that included a State visit last year by President K.R. Narayanan. Jaswant Singh had visited Paris in May last year, which was reciprocated by his French counterpart Hubert Vedrine.

Institutional mechanisms put in place by the two countries include the formation of joint working groups on information technology and terrorism, besides an Indo-French joint high committee on defence cooperation set up to examine the possibilities of cooperation.