While the war on Ukraine continues, France intends to develop its relationship withIndia in weaponry. Indeed, France wanted to remedy the problem of Russia’s lack of credibility as an arms supplier. In this context, Sebastien LecornuThe Minister of Defense of France will visit, on Sunday 27 November 2022, New Delhi to strengthen diplomatic relations between the two countries. This, before the official visit of the French President Emmanuel Macron. Note that France it is clearly placed in the ranking of arms suppliers to India, as it takes second place after Russia.

Concern about the quality of the weapons

The two countries have also conducted joint exercises since 1993. It has to be said that France is looking to exploit some of Russia’s dysfunctions to its advantage. Among these are concerns about the ability to meet production deadlines for exports while Russia is under Western sanctions and the quality of its weapons. As a reminder, since the start of the war in Ukraine, Moscow mentioned the development of military cooperation with India. This was stated in an interview with TASS last September by the Russian Ambassador in New Delhi. Denis Alipov.

“Our cooperation in this sector is developing confidently according to the new requirements. We see a lot of opportunities there to expand co-production and advanced technology in engineering.” said the Russian diplomat. He recalled that the parties had already started discussing it in detail at the 2019 Forum in Vladivostok, through the signing of an intergovernmental agreement on joint production of parts and components and maintenance of national-level military-made equipment, including with the prospect of providing this service in third country markets.