New Delhi, Dec 21 (Bureau) India and France on Tuesday held their Foreign Office Consultations, days after the India visit by French Defence Minister Florence Parly during which she said that France is ready to offer more Rafale fighter jets to India. The talks were led by Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Francois Delattre, Secretary-General, Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, who met to take stock of the wide-ranging India-France Strategic Partnership. In his opening remarks, Foreign Secretary Shringla said that the meeting comes close at the heels of a very fruitful visit by Florence Parly, Minister for Armed Forces of France on 17 December to hold the third Annual Defence Dialogue with Raksha Mantri. Before this, the two sides had held consultations in Paris on October 30, 2020 where they had exchanged perspectives on the Covid-19 pandemic and geo-political changes at a global and regional level, he said. “We had also discussed in detail various facets of bilateral cooperation including in the areas of space and energy and reviewed the progress made in other dialogue mechanisms between the two sides.”
The two sides had also exchanged notes on their close cooperation in multilateral and plurilateral fora, including the UNSC or trilateral cooperation. “This helped us prepare for India’s term as non-permanent member of the UNSC where India and France have worked in very close coordination,” he said. “Following the fruitful discussions last year, several high-level interactions took place in 2021 that included three ministerial visits from France to India, including those of Barbara Pompili, Minister for Ecological Transition in January, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Foreign Minister in April and most recently the Defence Minister, as mentioned earlier. “Besides these, several dialogues at the working level have also been held over the year, including the 34th and 35th editions of the Strategic Dialogue in January in New Delhi and in November in Paris, respectively, Joint Working Group on Environment in January, among others,” he added.