'India is at the core of Indo-Pacific strategy, AUKUS alliance not a solution': France

Military confrontational bloc is not the answer to problems in the Indo-Pacific region, said France on Tuesday, referring to the AUKUS deal that was recently signed between Australia, the United States, and the UK. 

Calling for a broader approach to address the issue, French Ambassador to India Emmanuel Lenain said, "We don't think the logic of blocs being military confrontational is the answer to our problem. We feel that we need more partnership between countries to provide an alternative to the order pushed by certain countries in the region. We need a positive agenda," he told ANI. 

AUKUS is a trilateral security agreement announced this September to enhance security in the Indo-Pacific region. However, France views Quad as a broader international group over the AUKUS security alliance.

"If I look at the statements including by the Indian officials, there is a clear difference between military alliance AUKUS and a more broader, a global group of countries which is Quad. How do we interact with Quad depends on the way it is evolved. Right now we are pretty comfortable with the way how Quad is making announcements and working, we will see they deliver on it and decided to be very pragmatic on that. We are result-oriented and it will depend. We are absolutely not against any cooperation on a case-to-case basis, as you may have seen in the month of April, the Quad navies joined French military exercise and it was quite a success."

The first in-person Quad summit, hosted by US President Joe Biden, was held in Washington last week that was attended by the heads of member states - Australia, India, and Japan.

Critics believe the trilateral deal has diluted the relevance of Quad, but India has already clarified that AUKUS is a security alliance and Quad is a union of like-minded democracies. 

Ever since AUKUS was signed this month there have been multiple interactions between India and France at the highest levels. French President Emmanuel Macron had a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also met his French counterpart on the sidelines of UNGA in New York

Talking about AUKUS, the envoy said there are two ways to face the challenge - either develop strategic autonomy or rely on other nations for security.

"My President, your Prime Minister spoke, ministers spoke. India is at the core of our Indo-Pacific strategy as we have the same approach. When you have challenges like these, you have two solutions. Either you develop your strategic autonomy, give yourself the means to be independent or you just rely on other countries to provide you security. Obviously, some countries have taken a second approach," he said taking a dig at Australia.

Lenain said for India and France it is nothing new and the two countries have taken the approach since the beginning. "We want to get strategic space, strategic autonomy and the best way to do it is to work together as India and France have been doing for more than fifty years on defence, critical technology, space, cyber, on AI, energy, and many areas. That's the way we want to develop our cooperation and we also want to be trusted partners," he said. 

France terms AUKUS pact breach of trust

The French envoy termed the signing of AUKUS as a breach of trust between allies. The European nation is upset with the pact as it lost a mega submarine deal to the US as a result of the agreement. France also feels humiliated on being kept in the dark about what the other three democracies were planning.

"My country was surprised. It was a breach of trust between allies and also it's a major strategic inconsistency. When you want to face an issue, a challenge, usually you try to rally countries which are like-minded, you don't try to exclude major partners and my country within the EU is the most involved in the Pacific," Lenain said.

"We feel we are also a country of Pacific. Also, we are India's neighbour. We have territories, we have a second exclusive economic zone worldwide. We have 2 million French people in the area. Compared to India it's few, for France it's quite something and we have troops we have thousands of troops, 7000 troops in the region," he added.

France recalled its envoys from the US and Australia after AUKUS was signed. Later after talks between Macron and Biden, it was decided that the envoy to the US will return. 

(With inputs from ANI)