Modi in France | A new phase of dynamism in India’s external affairs

Between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s return home from his State visit to the United States of America and his departure next week on an exclusive State visit to France, Indian diplomacy has been going through a phase of commiseration more than confabulation.

Two of Modi’s closest interlocutors in India’s external affairs have been going through rare misfortunes during the last fortnight. Of the two, Modi spoke on telephone to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on June 30, six days after a rebellion by the Wagner Private Military Company was defused.

On June 27, following the police killing of a French citizen of Algerian descent during a police stop, Paris erupted in violence, which soon spread to large parts of the country. France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, is facing the biggest political challenge of his presidency as Modi is giving finishing touches to his travel itinerary.

On July 6, Modi met Emmanuel Bonne, Diplomatic Advisor to Macron, during which the developments within France figured, among the larger context of Franco-Indian engagement. India’s security establishment is concerned that Modi will be exposed to the public for several hours during the Bastille Day Parade on July 14, where he is the chief guest. It is an exclusive occasion. The Indian side hopes the domestic situation in France will stabilise by the time Modi arrives in Paris on the eve of the iconic parade, commemorating the French Revolution of 1789.

The Wagner rebellion, which took the world by surprise, cast a shadow on the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)’s virtual summit on July 4 under India’s presidency. The effort in New Delhi now is to ensure that this will not be repeated when Modi visits Paris because of the recent events in France.

One of the perils of personalising high-level diplomacy is that important relationships between countries can become hostage to personal equations between their leaders. Modi is convinced that his personal investment in his counterparts can pay off. Many veterans in statecraft dispute such a theory, but the Prime Minister’s investment in the current occupant of the Élysée Palace is an outstanding example of Modi’s vindication in carrying forward such a policy.

When Macron was elected President for the first time (in 2017), Modi was not content to simply put out a ritual Twitter message or dispatch a personal, handwritten letter of congratulations. He was fascinated by the unconventional personal story of the President-elect, as much as by the conviction that India’s relations with France needed to be put on a firmer footing. He told then Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar — to the consternation of the tradition-bound foreign policy establishment in both countries — that he wished to travel to Paris and personally meet and greet the new President. Modi was one of the first foreign leaders to call on Macron, giving the go-by to a time-honoured priority of early visits to the Élysée Palace by European heavyweight counterparts of the new President.

The investment has certainly paid off. When Modi becomes only the second Indian leader to be chief guest on Bastille Day — Manmohan Singh was the first — New Delhi’s other suitors for deeper relations will see it as a special tribute to France’s ties with India, going way beyond honouring Modi. It can have far-reaching consequences for India’s quest for strategic autonomy in a re-emerging multi-polar world that was destroyed when the Cold War ended.

One evidence of such consequences was the inaugural Franco-Indian Strategic Space Dialogue held in Paris on June 27. Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra and the Secretary-General of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Anne-Marie Descôtes, led their respective delegations. This is a unique dialogue for both countries to create strategic space in global affairs for each other by working in concert.

India has strategic dialogues with any number of countries, but none — except with France — to create strategic space and autonomy in foreign policy. The concept is rapidly expanding from a Franco-Indian initiative and making trilateral forays. On February 4, the foreign ministers of India, France, and the United Arab Emirates had an extensive telephone conversation. The next day, Kwatra, who was in Paris, attended an India-France-UAE Trilateral Dialogue. What emerged was that the three countries would take “practical steps” to co-operate in the fields of defence, energy and environment, innovation, and people-to-people exchanges.

Having already consolidated their bilateral ties, Modi and Macron will explore similar trilateral relations during their coming summit. This will mark a new phase of dynamism and a creative expansion in India’s external affairs.

(KP Nayar has extensively covered West Asia and reported from Washington as a foreign correspondent for 15 years.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.