India’s Military Modernisation: Role and Impact of France

From Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs

France and India have developed a high level of convergence on a wide range of issues, spanning from regional to global. With their close and friendly relations traditionally tracing back decades, the two actors entered into a Strategic Partnership in 1998 and ever since have collaborated in areas of sustainable growth, climate change, cyber governance, etc with defence and security relations being a principal pillar of their partnership. As the twenty-first century began, the strategic partnership between India and France grew even stronger and expanded to encompass various areas, including defence acquisitions, civil nuclear collaboration, and space exploration.

The joint efforts of India and France in security relations extend beyond military ties to also include domains of maritime, space and civil nuclear areas. With the two actors entering into their third decade of strategic partnership, it is important to note that several high-level summits and bilateral political visits continue to take place as New Delhi and Paris strengthen their mutual cooperation in areas such as defence, security, cyber-security, digital economy, space security, and also the European Union.

India’s vision for Atmanirbhar Bharat adopted in 2020 attempts to make the country and its citizens self-reliant in all aspects. India, being the third largest military spender after the US and China, has also worked towards achieving self-reliance in defence production while maintaining a constant push towards ‘Make in India’.

The Indian embassy in Paris has reiterated France’s commitment and complete support to India’s vision of self-reliance in areas of defence industrialisation, joint research, and development in India across a broad spectrum of advanced capabilities. The first part of the article examines the historical background of evolving security relationship between India and France, analysing defence and security cooperation as a principal pillar of their Strategic Partnership. The second part of the article attempts to study the impact of France on India’s military modernisation through the transfer of resources and technology, and through co-development and co-production of equipment. It tracks France’s role in assisting India to reduce dependence on Russia for their military hardware requirements, in its path towards indigenous defence production. The concluding part of the article extrapolates the findings onto the future in order to examine the challenges faced by India in its attempt towards military modernisation. It also seeks to examine challenges in the partnership between the two actors and its impact on France’s role in India’s defence modernisation.

With defence and security as one of the major areas of convergence, the partnership between India and France provides a model for East-West cooperation that simultaneously supports an inclusive multipolar order while prioritizing national strategic autonomy. This model was celebrated at the 36th round of the Indo-French Strategic Dialogue attended by India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his French counterpart Emmanuel Bonne on 5 January 2023. The discussion aimed at bolstering plans for future cooperation between the two countries, majorly in the defence and security sectors, in the backdrop of current geopolitical trends.