Strategic partners India and France have made the decision to establish a cooperative working group to examine the operational, military-logistics, and political lessons learned from the current conflict in Ukraine. The working group will be made up of representatives from both countries’ foreign and national security ministries.
On November 28, the French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu met with the Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh, the external affairs minister S. Jaishankar, and the national security adviser Ajit Doval to advance bilateral seabed-to-space cooperation. This was done in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” project.
In terms of technology cooperation and the exchange of innovative, workable ideas for the future, India and France have also committed to coordinate and collaborate in the fields of cyber-security and space. In order to win future battles, the India-France alliance, led by Prime Minister Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron, is currently discussing cooperative research and development of aircraft engines, fighter jets, long-range submarines, and other weapons. It was resolved during the discussion with NSA Doval that both parties would jointly determine the hardware projects’ prioritisation before co-developing them as part of the “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” agenda. To cut through the bureaucratic red tape in the Indian military-civilian babudom, specific deadlines will be established for each military product’s conception, development, and manufacturing.
Expert groups from India and France will attempt to learn from the ongoing war, which is currently dormant throughout the winter and will erupt after the snow in Ukraine hardens, since their leaders are mostly in agreement on how to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine. This will allow both sides to reorganise and gather crucial supplies before the conflict picks back up on the ground.
Due to low morale, inadequate logistics supply lines, a lack of spare parts, and an inability to control airspace over Ukraine, the Ukraine war is turning out to be a mess for Russian troops. With American Stinger and Javelin missiles wreaking havoc on the Russian air force and ground armour, the US-funded and -supplied war campaign in Ukraine is in much better shape. The Russian frontline in the Luhansk-Donbas region is suffering as a result of the use of long-range artillery and rockets.
The reality is that the war in Ukraine has demonstrated the effectiveness of stand-off weapons and the lack of a guarantee that a nuclear power’s demonstrative weapons is sufficient to win a war on the ground. When Emmanuel Bonne, the diplomatic advisor to French President Macron, travels to India in January 2023 for the strategic discussion with NSA Ajit Doval, the India-France relation will grow even more.