India and France agree on mutually beneficial defence industrial partnership roadmap

India and France have firmed up a mutually beneficial defence industrial partnership roadmap for joint development and production of key military projects and technology collaboration across spheres such as space, land warfare, cyberspace, and artificial intelligence, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said on Friday 26 Jan.

This follows bilateral talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron in Jaipur on Thursday, where the two discussed multiple issues ranging from defence, space, education, health, mobility, and economic cooperation to the situation in Gaza and the Red Sea crisis.

Macron attended India’s 75th Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi as the chief guest.

The decision on adopting a defence production roadmap comes after India shared a blueprint of defence industrial co-operation in October 2023 so that both nations could flag core areas, including land warfare systems and equipment, robotics, autonomous platforms, and cyber, for working jointly. businessline exclusively reported this on November 15.

“The roadmap will involve identifying areas for partnership in the defence industrial sector that prioritise co-designing, co-development, and co-production, and also building the defence supply chains between the two countries so that they can not only fulfil the defence needs of India and France but also be a useful contributor to the security partnership with other countries who might be in use of similar products,” Kwatra said.

It will include both space and air technology; maritime technology, including underwater domain awareness; equipment and systems related to land warfare; and also robotics, AI, and autonomous vehicles and platforms, he added.