Published in: 09/14/2022 – 21:32

France and India agree on negotiations in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Paris and New Delhi “reject the world where it might be right,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said Wednesday, September 14, during a two-day official visit to India, condemning Russia’s “war of aggression” in Ukraine.

The head of French diplomacy, which is his first visit to India and his first bilateral visit to Asia since taking office, met Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister.

The meeting took place on the opening night in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, of the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, which will be held in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

War of aggression

The French minister told a news conference he had discussed with his colleague the “war of aggression unleashed by Russia”.

“What we have seen and what we must prevent from continuing is that an important member of the international community, the permanent members of the Security Council, has chosen to trample, waged a war of aggression, and continues to do so at this time, all principles on which it is based. foundation of the international order”, continued Catherine Colonna. “France and India reject a world where it is possible to be right,” he added.

India, which buys weapons from Russia, refuses, like China, to condemn the invasion of Ukraine.

In June, he remained a co-signer of the G7 declaration pledging to “respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of other countries”.

On the other hand, the South Asian giant has increased its Russian oil purchases significantly, “from 2% to 12%”, according to India’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, quoted by the Bloomberg agency.

The ultimate goal is to get back to the negotiating table.”

“Russia has difficulty exporting, this has to be factored into the equation, when we consider sanctions, with the limits to be based on the physical capacity to export to India (…) given the fact that there is no pipeline and therefore no possibility of shipping in bulk. huge,” Catherine Colonna told AFP.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, for his part, once again called for a “return to dialogue and diplomacy”, during a press conference.

“Among the great powers of the world, the two leaders have regular contact with the two parties to the conflict, they are the Prime Minister. [indien Narendra] Modi and the President [français Emmanuel] Macron,” he added, “I think we share the idea that the end goal is to get back to the negotiating table.”

India and France have a longstanding strategic partnership, strengthened by regular high-level consultations and growing convergence in various fields.

Catherine Colonna underlined that this relationship aims in particular “to serve the international order based on the rule of law (…), our two countries are very much bound to it, we see each other as a war of aggression”.

Chinese “Assertiveness”

The two ministers also discussed the situation in the Indo-Pacific, where China’s growing influence worries India.

“I believe that we share (with India) a very convergent analysis of China’s stance, its militarization, its assertiveness 0 I can use stronger words, especially when we think about what has been made in the Taiwan Strait – and also very general concerns. ,” France’s head of diplomacy told AFP.

In early August, Beijing began a show of force in retaliation for a visit to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is the highest-ranking US lawmaker to visit the island in 25 years.

According to Catherine Colonna, there is also “a commonality between India and France to realize that the block-to-block logic would be wrong, it is no longer American logic, we distinguish ourselves with a more nuanced and multi-dimensional approach to our relationship with China”.

Thursday, the diplomat will leave, on the second day of his trip, to Bombay, where he will meet a major Indian investor with business interests in France.

With AFP