Sarcozy visit to India

 

Aparna Jha
The recent visit of the French president Nicolas Sarkozy to India came with some
good results, strengthening the bilateral ties in the different sectors including
the IT, education, defence or the culture. Sarkozy has promised to double the
bilateral business to 1200 million Euro till 2012.

The French president came on a four day visit to India with his wife Carla Bruni
on December 4-7. Contrary to the US president, Barack Obama who landed at
the financial capital of the country, he landed at the IT capital of India Bangalore.

India and France have enjoyed a good bilateral relation since long, especially
in the sector of defense and military cooperation between India and France. In
fact when India desired to diversify its military relation in the early 1990s, France
was the first to respond. It all started with the supply of French omnipotent flying
machines mirage-2000. Over the years, these air crafts have had Indian air force
fly high in the skies.

Later in the 1998, India and France took this bilateral relation to a strategic
level since the time a high level defense committee has been meeting and the
countries entered into a lot of agreements. There is a (JWG) Joint working group
on terrorism to aid co-operation in ‘fight against the terrorism’.

The French president signed a total of seven deals with the India. A deal on
general framework for the implementation of EPR N-power plants at Jittapur
between NPCIL and the French company AREVA was signed which would
produce 1650mw nuclear energy. Prior to this, in the area of the nuclear
cooperation India had signed a deal with the France in the September 2008,
which was a land mark agreement on civil nuclear co-operation between India
and France during the PM’s visit to France. Thereafter a MoU was signed
between NPCIL and the French firm AREVA, some time in February 2009, for
setting up two European pressurized reactors in India.

Among the other deals are confidentiality of technical data, information on
Nuclear cooperation including nano-technology, bio-technology, weather
prediction, aerospace engineering etc. an IPR was also signed on the peaceful
use of energy, cooperation Between ISRO and French space agency over earth
system science and climate.

In a bid to strengthen the cultural relation the two countries signed a deal on
December 6, 2010 to co-produce the film. It will enhance the cultural interaction

and will strengthen the cultural ties. Now an Indian producer a can produce a
movie with a French production house by paying 10 percent of the total budget. A
movie produced in India can be treated as a national film in France and the third
countries. The pact will also allow French production houses to shoot in India
through tax rebates and relaxed visa norms.

There have been some good deals in the area of education, providing room to
the Indian students to get education or research in the France and also providing
a chance to work together with the students there. A deal has been signed in the
field of Research and technology, with a thought of establishing a joint laboratory
for research and partnership of IIT and IIS with French university and research
centers for Deal between IIT and ‘Paris tech’ for the institutional and the student
exchange and joint research and education programme. The number of Indian
students in France was 1500 till 2007 which the French president assured to
triple till 2012.