Syllabus: GS-II
Subject: International Relations
Topic: India’s relations with major powers
Issue: India-France relationship
- A “defence industrial roadmap”
- for cooperation on defence production and
- for future collaboration on “co-design and co-development” of military hardware.
- Identified domains of collaboration range from aircraft to land and maritime warfare, especially underwater domain awareness, to space, robotic technology, cyber-defence, and artificial intelligence-led vehicles.
- Other agreements:
- Defence-space partnership that will help collaborate on “space situational awareness” and
- An MoU on coordinating satellite launches.
- Defence deals in the pipeline
- The 26 Rafale-M fighter jets for the Indian Navy’s aircraft carriers
- Three additional Scorpene-class conventional submarines.
Issues:
- Press visa restrictions-French government raised the issue of a French journalist who could be deported.
- No breakthrough on the civil nuclear cooperation agreement to build reactors at Jaitapur that was first signed in 2009.
