On the first day of his three-day visit to France, External affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met with the French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian. Jaishankar and his French counterpart exchanged assessment over raging Ukraine situation with French President Emanuel Macron doing heavy diplomatic lifting to resolve the crisis diplomatically.
Next month India and France hold the next round of their strategic dialogue in India and the current visit between these two will be focused on geopolitical and defence issues mainly. Jaishankar is expected to hold discussions with his counterparts on sharing critical and emerging technologies.
In the meeting with Indian envoys in Europe, the minister is likely to spell out the Modi government’s vision for Europe as well as shared the assessment of Indian ambassadors.
During his visit to Munich, Jaishankar spoke at length on India’s relations with China and most importantly the notions surrounding the Quad alliance which also includes United States, Australia and Japan.
Jaishankar reject the notion that Quad was an Asian NATO as a ‘misleading term’ and asked the critics not to slip into the lazy analogy.
He said that, “It isn’t because there are three countries who are treaty allies. We are not a treaty ally. It doesn’t have a treaty, a structure, a secretariat; it’s a kind of 21st century way of responding to a more diversified, dispersed world.”