EAM’s remarks at the Joint Press Conference alongside FM JN Barrot of France (June 13, 2025)

Dr. S. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs: Thank you. As my colleague said, I am back in Marseille. It is wonderful to be back and thank you for hosting me.

I think we had very good discussions today and it was a pleasure to participate at the Raisina Mediterranean Dialogue including the session that the two of us did this morning. I should also add that before coming here, I was in Paris. I had the honor to call on President Macron the day before yesterday.

So, in terms of our strategic partnership, our enduring partnership, what I do want to say is that it is built on shared values, on a strong sense of sovereignty, on our democratic commitment, on independence, on strategic autonomy guiding our foreign policy and obviously on our commitment to multilateralism and respect for international law. And clearly over the years, I think there is a very high degree of trust between India and France as we look at our relationship and cooperation.

Today, as the Minister also indicated, we have really had wide-ranging discussions which covered defense, it covered civilian nuclear energy, it covered space, counter-terrorism, people-to-people relations, innovation, AI technology and we actually spent a little while discussing how between education, research, business and mobility, how we can really find new ways of adding more substance to our relationship. When I look at the horizon, I think what is important is the India-France year of innovation next year.

So, we are really gearing up to use that as an additional new driver of our relationship and we are in many ways trying to prepare for that.

In terms of what we discussed, let me just, in addition to what the Minister said, highlight some particular aspects from my perspective. One, I would like to express our deep appreciation to France for the strong condemnation of the cross-border terrorist attack that took place on 22nd April at Pahalgam and for France's steadfast support for India's right to defend itself against terrorism.

Second, where the pillars of our strategic relationship, partnership are concerned, especially defense, security, space and civilian-nuclear cooperation, I think we agreed to intensify all of these through very concrete measures and projects in the time to come.

Third, where the Indo-Pacific is concerned, we both share a vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific where international law and maritime security are upheld. We discussed joint efforts for collaboration to promote those objectives.

Our conversations today covered IMEC, our triangular development cooperation, how do we take forward some of our trilateral mechanisms.

We have one with the UAE and with Australia. And I look forward to a more detailed conversation about President Macron's recent visit to the Indo-Pacific. Let me to that also say a few words about culture and people-to-people exchanges.

For us, this is a very special aspect of our relationship with France. You welcome a lot of students to this country. We hope that the numbers can grow in the years to come so that they constitute a deep living bridge between us.

We also see France as a very valued partner in our National Museum project in Delhi, as well as we discussed today cooperation for our National Maritime Heritage Complex that we are building. And even when we talk about the year of innovation, I think cultural innovation is a very important part of that.

Finally, let me just say a few words about the international global issues that we discussed. We have had some conversations. We expect to continue it after the remarks as well.

Those have covered the situation in Ukraine, obviously the situation in the Indian subcontinent, a brief discussion on what is happening right now in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific.

Once again, I want to say thank you very much for hosting me here today. It is always good to be back here. And I do think that the Raisina Mediterranean Dialogue has actually added a new facet to our relationship.

And in many ways, we need platforms to discuss and develop a kind of a common understanding about the IMEC and other partnership endeavors that we have. I think it has been very useful. Thank you.

Additional Remarks

Dr. S. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs: There was one issue which the Minister commented on, but I left it out in my remarks.

This is with regard to Ukraine. It has always been our position that this is not an era where differences should be settled through war. We believe that dialogue and diplomacy is the answer. We do think that no solution is going to come out of the battlefield. That has always been our position.

We believe that direct negotiations between the parties concerned is most important. And I can say where India is concerned, and I can also tell you that this is the very widespread sentiment in the world, especially among global South countries, that nobody wants to see this conflict continue, and that the sooner it is brought to an end, the better it is.

Marseille
June 13, 2025