Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday discussed the Afghanistan situation and the Indo-Pacific region while vowing to act together.
On a telephonic conversation, both the leaders promised to act jointly in the Indo-Pacific region to keep the region stable and free of hegemony, according to the French ambassador to India.
The meeting gained importance as France’s $40 billion deal of supplying submarines to Australia broke down after the formation AUKUS alliance, which is a trilateral deal between Australia, the UK and the US.
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Australia last week said that it would scarp the ongoing deal with the French Navy, that was agreed in 2016, to build and supply build a fleet of conventional submarines. Canberra said that it will instead work with the US and UK to build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines.
France issued a statement and displayed its dismay with the AUKUS deal, saying that the trilateral deal has been like a ‘knife in the back’ of Paris.
India and France talked in length about the impending challenges posed by Afghanistan in and around the South Asia region. The talks stretched between concerns over the possible spread of terrorism, narcotics, women rights and minorities.
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The nuclear-powered submarines will give Australia naval heft in the Pacific, where China has been particularly aggressive. While the US and Britain have had the capability for decades, Australia has never had a nuclear submarine.
The pact will also focus on military capability, separating it from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance which also includes New Zealand and Canada. While Australia's submarines is the big-ticket item, AUKUS will also involve the sharing of cyber capabilities and other undersea technologies.
Australia will become just the seventh nation in the world to operate nuclear-powered submarines, after the US, UK, France, China, India and Russia. However, Australia has reaffirmed it has no intention of obtaining nuclear weapons.
