NEW DELHI: Building on their cooperative surveillance missions conducted from the French island of La Reunion in 2020 and 2022, India and France have decided to step up their cooperation in the Southwest Indian Ocean. The two nations applauded the expansion of those exchanges into India's maritime area as well. Following French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to India for the Republic Day celebrations, the two countries released a joint statement suggesting that these exchanges could have a good impact on the securitization of vital sea lanes of communication. Based on their shared vision for the Indo-Pacific region, Prime Minister Modi and French President Macron reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening their long-standing alliance. The leaders highlighted how important the area is to their individual national and geopolitical interests.The importance of their relationship in the area for the development of a free, open, inclusive, safe, and peaceful Indo-Pacific and beyond was also underlined. Citing the July 2023 completed Comprehensive Roadmap for the Indo-Pacific, they conveyed pleasure with the growing scope of their involvement in the area. The joint statement states that the India-France collaboration in the Indo-Pacific area, which encompasses a wide range of bilateral, multinational, regional, and institutional efforts, particularly in the Indian Ocean Region, has its foundation in the military and security partnership. According to the statement, PM Modi and French President Macron promised to revive trilateral cooperation with Australia, strengthen their relationship with the United Arab Emirates, and look into establishing new ones in the area.The two leaders requested that their governments come up with specific project ideas after realising the value of cooperative and multilateral efforts in promoting human welfare, resilient infrastructure, innovation, and connectivity in the region as well as sustainable economic development. In the joint statement, the two presidents also demanded that the Indo-Pacific Triangular Development Cooperation Fund be established as soon as possible to help with the expansion of green technology development in the area. They decided to look into ways to coordinate Pacific-wide economic initiatives and programmes. The French Development Agency was praised by both leaders for its work in India. The two leaders talked about how the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC) was introduced in September 2023 in Delhi, outside of the G20 Summit. Prime Minister Modi received praise from President Macron for spearheading this momentous project. Both presidents concurred that this project would be extremely important from a strategic standpoint and would greatly increase the potential and robustness of the energy and trade flows connecting Europe, the Middle East, and India. The project's Special Envoy, President Macron, was duly appointed, a development that Prime Minister Modi praised. The two presidents also recalled talking about other connection projects that would connect Southeast Asia to the Middle East and Africa during their July summit in Paris, and they decided to look into particular projects. PM Modi and President Macron reaffirmed their support for effective multilateralism that is reformed in order to confront urgent global challenges, maintain a just and peaceful international order, and get the world ready for new developments, particularly in the economic and technical spheres. The two presidents specifically emphasised how vital it is to restructure the UN Security Council and demanded that text-based negotiations at the UN's Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) start as soon as possible. France reaffirmed its unwavering support for India's UNSC permanent membership. The two leaders decided to have more in-depth discussions about how to govern the use of the veto in the event of mass atrocities. [caption id="attachment_9708" align="alignnone" width="300"] India, France agree to intensify cooperation in Southwest Indian…
