The French Connection: India-France Partnership for the Indo-Pacific Zeitgeist
Monish Tourangbam and Mayank Chari
India’s bilateral relationship with France has been a robust one, and a test case for maintaining a distinct trajectory of its own allowing enough elbow room to both countries to practice their respective strategic autonomies. This issue brief after delving into the multi-dimensional convergences of the India-France strategic relationship contends that the partnership between New Delhi and Paris is one of equals based on complementariness of interest and congruence of intent. The complex geopolitics and geo-economics of the Indo-Pacific would require navigating areas of competition, cooperation, and confrontation. Therefore, the issue brief argues that New Delhi and Paris are well positioned through their worldviews to lend a sense of pragmatism in the Indo-Pacific, beyond the binary expectations of “either you are with us, or against us”. India and France through their terms of engagements sans entanglements could provide a primer for the webs of new partnerships and alignments in the Indo-Pacific.
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