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New Delhi. 17 December 2021. Indian Rajnath Singh & his French counterpart Ms Florence Parly held the 3rd Annual Defence Dialogue covering a wide range of bilateral, regional, defence and defence industrial cooperation issues.
The Ministers reviewed the existing military-to-military cooperation, which has increased in spite of pandemic challenges. They discussed ways to increase defence cooperation in all domains. India and France have recently concluded their annual bilateral Army Exercise, Shakti, with focus on counter-terrorist operations, in France in November 2021. Defence industrial cooperation was discussed with focus on future collaborations and co-production between the two countries.
The Ministers acknowledged their convergences on number of strategic and defence issues. They expressed commitment to work together to enhance cooperation in bilateral, regional and multilateral forums. France is the current chair of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium and shall take over the Presidency of European Union from January 01, 2022. The two Ministers decided to work closely on a number of issues during the French Presidency.
Earlier, Ms Florence Parly called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and paid tribute to Indian soldiers at the National War Memorial. She is expected to meet with other Indian dignitaries during her visit.
“Received French minister for Armed Forces today and discussed bilateral defence cooperation, regional security, Indo-Pacific and France’s forthcoming Presidency of the EU Council. I reiterated India’s commitment to further deepening our Strategic Partnership,” tweeted Prime Minister Modi.
At the session at Ananta Aspen Centre, the French Defence Minister said, “ We want to make sure that freedom of navigation is respected Indo-Pacific that’s why despite being far from our homeland we regularly deploy our ships & navy to express our right to navigate freely.”
“India-France Strategic Partnership is more relevant today than ever. I had an excellent meeting with my French counterpart,” tweeted Rajnath Singh, Indian Defence Minister.
