The media coverage in India of Modi’s visit to France, Germany and Canada from April 9 to 17 has been patchy. While it was naturally less than that for his US visit it seems to have been even lower than for his forays to Australia or to the countries in the region. This is unfortunate, as these are important countries and Modi’s visit has greatly enhanced our relationship with each one of them.
All three countries are in G7, are leading industrialised democracies, and are technological powerhouses. They are no strangers to India but the full potential of the relationship is yet to be realised. Modi’s visit was skilfully crafted to give a fillip to ties with each country with a view to leveraging them to strengthen India particularly in the economic domain.
While the programme in each country was inevitably a function of local circumstances, interests and opportunities, one can discern a common and well-defined pattern in its structuring as well as in the engagements and interactions developed. Thus whether in France, Germany, or Canada, the programmes chalked out provided for ample bonding time between Modi and his principal host, in-depth and extensive interaction with the captains of industry, and a meaningful outreach to the Indian diaspora.
Apart from the delegation-level talks and banquets organised by the principal hosts in honour of Modi which in themselves provided much time for interaction amongst them, it is notable that several other opportunities for the same were also generated. In this context, one need only mention the president Hollande-Modi cruise on the Seine, the Chancellor Merkel-Modi visit to the Hannover Messe, and the prime minister Harper-Modi joint visits to Toronto and Vancouver. Such quality time spent Modi and his hosts together would undoubtedly have helped establish an excellent rapport and chemistry which is in mutual interest and can only redound to India’s benefit.
The logic of Modi’s meetings with the business community rests on his obvious effort to use the same to promote India’s economic development. Such meetings are all the more necessary in industrialised democracies where the business community is fairly autonomous in its decision making. Thus in France, Modi had two back-to-back meetings with leading CEOs—one in the area of infrastructure and the second dealing with defence, space and nuclear energy. In Germany, he participated, along with Merkel, in the inauguration of the Hannover Messe 2015, the world’s largest industrial fair, where India had been selected as the partner country—a rare honour, enjoyed by Russia in 2013 and slated for the US in 2016. As many as 350 Indian firms along with scores of Indian businessmen participated in the fair. As in France he also had meetings with leading German CEOs. Modi made a strong and convincing pitch with the leaders of industry to participate in the Make in India, Digital India and Clean India campaigns underlining the huge opportunities which would be available to them in view of the government’s moves to provide a stable and business-friendly environment in the country.
Modi’s interaction with the Indian diaspora in Paris, Berlin and the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto constitutes part of his standard operating procedure designed to harness it in promoting India’s influence and development.
On the one hand it promotes the Indian community’s feel-good factor and on the other, it encourages Indians abroad to invest in India. Perhaps, even more importantly, it transforms NRIs to become fervent supporters of India and its best ambassadors.
While the joint statements issued at the end of the French and Canadian legs of the visit were meaty and cover many areas from defence to climate change and terrorism to foreign policy, that issued at the end of the Germany visit is short and essentially limited to identifying areas of India-German collaboration such as manufacturing, skill development, urban development, environment, railways, cleaning of rivers, renewable energy, etc. It, however, mentions that the two countries will expand their dialogue on foreign policy and security issues and exchanges at the level of defence and foreign ministers are envisaged prior to the intergovernmental consultations scheduled in India this October.
Media attention during the visit was, however, in the main focussed on the Rafale jet deal with France and the uranium deal with Canada as the major outcomes. The former entails, at Modi’s request, quick supply of 36 Rafale jets, in fly-away condition through an intergovernmental agreement on terms better than those demanded by Dassault “as part of a separate process underway”. It may be recalled that negotiations have been underway for years between India and Dassault for supply of 126 Rafale jets—18 in flyaway condition and the balance to be made in India under licence. While Modi may be commended for unblocking the stalemate on the issue several questions remain unanswered. Firstly, can these aircraft be delivered quickly enough to meet the critical operational needs of the IAF, given that only a dozen are manufactured annually? Secondly, is it intended to get another 90 Rafales or will they be substituted by another aircraft? The latter would make the purchase of only 36 Rafales a logistically unsound proposition. Thirdly, if we intend to get another 90 Rafales will they be obtained on a government-to-government basis or by manufacture in India? The former would constitute a setback to the Make in India policy.
Apart from the Rafale deal, Indo-French cooperation in the nuclear field also received a fillip with the signing of an MoU between Areva and L&T to manufacture reactor equipment in India so as to reduce costs that would make the 6x1650MW nuclear power plants to be set up by the former in Jaitapur financially more viable.
As regards the uranium deal with Canada its significance lies in that it marks the beginning of civil nuclear cooperation between the two nations after its termination following Pokharan I. A civil nuclear cooperation agreement was signed between the two countries in 2010 but supply of uranium from Canada did not take place on account of differences on inspection-related issues. With Canada agreeing to accept IAEA inspections on uranium supplied by it to India these differences stand resolved. Accordingly, during the visit Canadian company Cameco agreed to supply India over 3000MT of uranium concentrate over five years at a cost of about $300 million. This will substantially ease the fuel supply problems that our nuclear reactors have faced from time to time.