The growing friendship between France and India means that we can coin a new acronym to define the two, namely FRAIND
The growing friendship between France and India means that we can coin a new acronym to define the two, namely FRAIND. While the signs were visible everywhere during the recently concluded Bastille Day military parade when Indian troops led French ones down the Champs Elysees in Paris the seeds were sown much earlier in 2006, when India and France signed an agreement to pursue civilian nuclear co-operation.
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The Arc de Triomphe at the Champs Elysees in Paris |
But in some ways this friendship has always existed. In fact, France was one of the few countries that did not criticise us when we conducted nuclear tests in 1998.
Today, both countries have started discussing ways of fighting terrorism, and this could help India more than any amount of hemming and hawing by the US. This is because the US, though growing closer to India, is hampered by the fact that it has been an ally of Pakistan right from the days of the Cold War, and international ties tend to last quite long.
Also, the US needs to support Pakistan because it cannot alienate itself from the Islamic countries. Thanks to Pakistan, whenever anybody says that America is targeting Islam, they can show Pakistan and say that they have always been friends of the Islamic world.
In fact, the double standards of the US are evident in the fact that it is not supporting India's inclusion in the UN Security Council, while France is doing so, and has actually said that India needs to be included if the UNSC has to remain a legitimate force for maintaining world peace.
In this context, it might be profitable for India to give US the cold shoulder this country is too powerful to be shunned completelyu2014and push for better relationships with France. And this could be good in two ways.
For one, France wants to sell its Rafale fighter planes to India and Areva, the French nuclear reactor maker, is close to finalising agreements with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India. This means that our defence needs are taken care of without US help, which is important because the US will always favour Pakistan with better equipment than India. It also helps us with our peaceful nuclear growth.
The second thing is that, the more business we do with France, the more the US will try to woo us. And of course, we can have a rider support us for the UNSC if you want to do business with us.
Yeah, I know that this is blackmailing, but politics is a dirty field and the US knows about this more than any other country in the world.
