‘Who Will Innovate With India?’ New Horizons for the France-India Partnership

French President Emmanuel Macron’s go to to India from February 17 to 19 –  his fourth since taking workplace in 2017 – was emblematic of the accelerating momentum in France-India relations. The go to got here within the rapid aftermath of the EU-India Free Commerce Settlement concluded on January 27 and adopted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reciprocal go to to France a yr earlier, reflecting the now-established rhythm of high-level exchanges between Paris and New Delhi.

In February 2026, the 2 leaders additional consolidated the connection, which was formally elevated to a Particular International Strategic Partnership, with an agenda conspicuously oriented towards innovation, synthetic intelligence, and rising applied sciences. That may be a testomony to how far the partnership has developed past its conventional strategic and protection foundations.

Historic Bonds and Regional Convergence

France and India share a longstanding relationship courting again to the seventeenth century, when the French monarchy pursued colonial ambitions in South Asia. 5 French buying and selling posts – Puducherry, Karaikal, Yanam, Mahé, and Chandannagar – remained below French sovereignty till the Nineteen Fifties, leaving a lasting imprint on India’s cultural and administrative panorama. 

All through the twentieth century, the 2 nations maintained shut ties, symbolized by the private rapport between their leaders – Jawaharlal Nehru and Charles de Gaulle, Indira Gandhi and Jacques Chirac, and as we speak Modi and Macron – culminating within the signing of a strategic partnership in 1998. Paris has since been a constant supporter of India’s strategic ambitions: it avoided condemning New Delhi’s 1998 nuclear exams and continues to again India’s bid for a everlasting seat on the United Nations Safety Council.

As two resident powers within the Indian Ocean Area (IOR), the bilateral historic depth has translated naturally into regional convergence. Each international locations are already established companions within the IOR, collaborating via organizations just like the Indian Ocean Rim Affiliation, the Indian Ocean Fee, and the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium. The French territory of La Réunion has progressively developed right into a strategic platform for bilateral army cooperation, underpinned by a 2018 logistics settlement granting Indian naval forces entry to the bottom and enabling common joint patrols involving Indian P-8I maritime patrol plane. 

The deepening partnership underscores a shared dedication to upholding a rules-based regional order within the Indo-Pacific, in a context formed by U.S. coverage volatility and China’s increasing affect. These ambitions got tangible expression throughout France’s Mission Clemenceau deployment in early 2025, when the Charles de Gaulle service strike group referred to as at Goa and took part within the twenty third Varuna bilateral naval train with the Indian Navy.

From Strategic Autonomy to Rafale Diplomacy 

Franco-Indian convergence is just not confined to the Indo-Pacific alone – it extends to the broader structure of world governance. Each international locations have lengthy anchored their overseas insurance policies in a shared dedication to strategic autonomy – a refusal to undergo any type of hegemony or to be drawn into the rivalries of others. Macron’s imaginative and prescient of France as a “puissance d’équilibre” (balancing energy) finds a pure echo in Indian Exterior Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s doctrine of multi-alignment, each reflecting a choice for versatile partnerships over unique alliances. 

This yr lends this convergence further resonance. In 2026, India chairs the BRICS grouping whereas France holds the G-7 presidency – a uncommon alignment that Macron has sought to capitalize on by inviting Modi as a particular visitor to the G-7 Summit in Évian.

This in depth political relation has fostered a sturdy protection partnership constructed on landmark acquisitions and deepening industrial collaboration. Six Scorpène-class submarines and 36 Rafale fighter jets are already in service within the Indian Armed Forces. An extra 26 Rafale Marine plane had been ordered in 2025, and the Protection Acquisition Council has lately accredited the procurement of 114 extra – a choice that can’t be dissociated from the jet fighters’ operational deployment throughout Operation Sindoor. 

Industrial protection cooperation extends effectively past any single weapons system or platform, encompassing Airbus H125 helicopter meeting in Bangalore, collaboration on the engine for India’s future AMCA fighter, and home manufacturing of the HAMMER missile – all confirming France’s emergence as a uniquely worthwhile companion in India’s protection modernization and indigenization agenda.

A Partnership Constructed for the twenty first Century

Whereas political convergence and protection cooperation have lengthy been the cornerstones of France-India bilateral relations, each international locations have sought to broaden the scope of their collaboration. As outlined in Horizon 2047 – a joint assertion  issued in 2023 mapping cooperation over the following 25 years – the bilateral partnership now spans cybersecurity, house, photo voltaic vitality, local weather motion, inexperienced hydrogen, civil nuclear energy, essential minerals, and ocean safety, in addition to high-level educational and scientific exchanges. 

Constructing on present cooperation, Macron’s latest go to marked a big shift. AI and innovation at the moment are the brand new priorities, as highlighted by the launch of the India-France 12 months of Innovation in Mumbai. French corporations are decided to capitalize on India’s emergence as a worldwide hub of technological innovation to foster financial improvement. As Macron said: “The query is not whether or not India innovates – it’s ‘who will innovate with India?’”

AI stands because the pre-eminent pillar of this shared ambition. A yr after co-chairing the AI Motion Summit in Paris in February 2025, Macron and Modi reunited in New Delhi for the India AI Affect Summit. AI is a website the place the China-U.S. duopoly looms massive, leaving important scope for India to work alongside Europe and different center powers to pool affect and cut back structural dependencies. 

As Macron warned, the event of AI “is just not a two-player recreation” – an assertion mirrored in each leaders’ urge for food for broader minilateral codecs, together with trilateral partnerships with the UAE and Australia. Macron invited Modi to affix the Africa Ahead Summit on innovation and development, to be held in Nairobi in Might 2026.

Minor Divergences Will Not Jeopardize the Total Partnership

No strategic partnership is with out its friction factors, and the France-India relationship isn’t any exception. Every nation pursues a overseas coverage formed by its personal home constraints and regional imperatives, and these don’t all the time align. France is absent from the Quad, maintains a extra nuanced posture towards China on the U.N. Safety Council, and has seen its relationship with Moscow deteriorate to historic lows – whereas India continues to deal with Russia as an indispensable companion regardless of the struggle in Ukraine. 

Even in protection cooperation, the historic cornerstone of the connection, some turbulence often arises. New Delhi’s obvious choice for a German submarine design over a further French Scorpène illustrates the aggressive pressures France faces as a provider. 

These peripheral dissonances stay manageable. France-India ties have matured effectively past the transactional logic of arms offers or reciprocal diplomacy. Anchored in a shared dedication to multipolarity and strategic autonomy, and institutionalized via a dense net of agreements, codecs, and roadmaps, the partnership has reached a level of resilience that episodic divergences are unlikely to undermine.