A French toast to India on Bastille Day
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Paris to be the chief guest at the French national day—Bastille Day—parade, opinion was divided in the global strategic community on which of his two most recent state visits would have a greater impact on world affairs or significance in India’s external affairs. Would his parleys in the White House overshadow his talks in the Élysée Palace or vice versa, although the two meetings do not constitute a zero-sum game? Or would they complement each other in making the world a better place for everyone?
In the international fraternity, all eyes are on whether Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron will initiate a peace plan to end the Ukraine war. Macron was the first world leader to praise Modi’s words to Russian President Vladimir Putin that “this is not the era of war”. Macron reiterated this praise in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2022: rarely does one country’s leader praise another in an annual General Assembly address. Both Modi and Macron are capable of speaking to Putin and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy: in today’s polarised world, few leaders are equipped to do so.
It is not very well known that at the request of France, India participated in a “Solidarity with the Ukrainian People” conference in Paris in December, which raised one billion euros to be spent on humanitarian assistance to mitigate the fallout of the war. India’s role in working with Russia for the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is also not well-publicised. The next logical step is for Élysée Palace and 7, Lok Kalyan Marg—the prime ministerial residence—to make a joint plan and find a way to end the 16-month-long war.
Despite centuries of links through former enclaves like Puducherry and Mahe, for the Indian masses, France is now an ambiguous entity, unlike countries in the Anglo-Saxon geographical sphere or Dubai and Saudi Arabia, which are magnets for migrants from Kapurthala to Kasargod. So, Modi’s visit will have many novelties. For instance, the prime minister will be in the hall of fame in Paris today as he arrives at the La Seine Musicale. This venue, where Modi will speak to the Indian community in France, has not seen anyone like Modi before. La Seine Musicale, which translates as ‘The Musical Seine’, is on an island. It takes its name from the river which divides Paris into its iconic left bank, home to artists for more than a century, and the right bank, where the majesty of the Arc de Triomphe looks benevolently upon the world-famous Avenue des Champs-Élysées.
Bob Dylan was the first artist to perform at La Seine Musicale when it opened in April 2017. The last two were Amjad Ali Khan and L Subramaniam on July 8 and 9, respectively. When France hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 2021, it was held at Grand Seine, a part of the same complex. It is an unusual venue for politicians to speak, that too for a visiting prime minister. Despite travelling across the world, Modi has not graced any place as unique as La Seine Musicale. The only time he did anything similar was on September 28, 2014, in New York’s open-air Central Park. Modi then spoke late-night at a Global Citizen Festival, with celebrities like actor Hugh Jackman, rapper Jay Z and singer Carrie Underwood in attendance. India’s Ambassador in Paris, Jawed Ashraf, was in the Prime Minister’s Office when Modi went to Central Park and may have got the idea of taking Modi to this musical island from that experience. The newly elected Indian prime minister caught the attention of New Yorkers, who are used to foreign heads of government and are not usually impressed by visiting politicians.
Modi’s journey to Seguin Island offers an opportunity to repeat that rare appeal and boost cultural cooperation with France: if one thing makes France sit up, it is culture.
Currently celebrating the silver jubilee of their strategic partnership, Franco-Indian relations are robust. And these relations are not merely transactional just because a slew of weapons purchases and at least one joint production scheme are to be announced by Modi during his visit. Franco-Indian relations go beyond this.
From that strong bilateral footing, India hopes to rebuild relations with Continental Europe, which fell by the wayside in the last two decades because of New Delhi’s other, more immediate foreign policy priorities. The Ukraine war, which has created—or deepened—an unnatural division between Russia and the rest of the continent, demands a fresh look at India’s policies for Europe.
For Continental Europeans—especially the Germans, who thrived for three decades on cheap Russian energy and lucrative Chinese markets—the war has triggered a need to search for new and more reliable options. India could be one such option if New Delhi plays its cards right. France could be India’s springboard in this effort, just as Singapore was a similar springboard in the 1990s when P V Narasimha Rao’s India, in the first wave of liberalisation, sought to broaden its economic engagement with a sceptical Southeast Asia. Conversely, Europe could see France as an example of how to treat India as a mature Asian power and a re-emerging participant in the Global Commons.
Despite the EU cloning its EU-US Trade and Technology Council by creating a much-touted India-Europe Trade and Technology Council a year ago, problems with an institutionalised European Union remain. The European Parliament continues to table resolutions criticising India on a host of issues. And although its criticisms aren’t taken too seriously on the global stage, it does create some amount of nuisance for India.
At the root of the problem is an Old Europe vs. New Europe tussle, where one cannot get rid of old colonial complexes and the other’s new outlook is to put money where its mouth is. As Modi and Macron honour the memory of those who fought for the enduring values of the French Revolution, Franco-Indian relations constitute a shining example of realism and how to be pragmatic without sacrificing traditional values.
K P Nayar
Strategic analyst