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“France, India must join hands against terrorism”

— Photo: T. Singaravelou

SHARING THEIR VIEWS: Puducherry Chief Minister V. Vaithilingam with the Ambassador of France in India Jerome Bonnafont and Consul- General of France in Pondicherry Joelle Rayet in Puducherry on Wednesday.

PUDUCHERRY: Ambassador of France in India Jerome Bonnafont on Wednesday stressed the need for increased cooperation against terrorism between France and India by increasing the level of operational contact among the police force, intelligence services and legal system — a cooperation to tackle terrorism much more effectively.

Mr. Bonnafont, who was on a two-day visit to Puducherry, told reporters, “There is a strategic dialogue between India and France for 10 years now. This was re-affirmed in January and September last year when the French President and Indian Prime Minister met.”

Noting that France suffered casualties during the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, he said, “People have suffered. These are periods when France needs to join hands with India. This was not an attack on India alone. It was an attack on every body, on the civilised country and society. Sixty French people were in the place during the attacks and two died.”

“We suffer with India and this is the occasion for us to increase our cooperation against terrorism,” he observed.

Approximately, one lakh Indians were employed by French companies in India, the Ambassador said, adding, “We want to go further and there are lot of prospects in aeronautics. There is little slowdown but the prospects of development in Indian aeronautics is huge.”

Adding that the second sector of potential investment was energy security, he said, “Energy security is key to the development of India. France has a very special energy structure based very heavily on nuclear energy and increasingly on renewable energy. These are areas of cooperation which can be developed and the agreement signed by the two countries has paved way to the civilian nuclear cooperation on a big scale.”

Another potential area of investment was environment and infrastructure and France had the best infrastructure network of Europe, he observed. “Our companies have developed special knowledge when it comes to water management, sanitation and waste management which are all key to sustainable development of India. There is much more to be achieved between India and France in this regard,” he said.

The Ambassador said there were lot of progress to be made in agriculture and consumables and France was the first in per head export of agro-processed food. “We want to invest in India and help India increase its productivity, increase share of agriculture production going for processing and efficiency of agriculture market,” he pointed out.

Though France was looking at possibilities of establishing industries in Puducherry, including Special Economic Zones, there was no space here, he said, adding, “There are some opportunities in sectors such as hotel management.”

Noting that the present economic situation was “very serious,” Mr. Bonnafont said the situation required national efforts and international coordination to finance growth.

“France has a very ambitious package of incentives and India is doing the same. But this is not enough and we have to have coordination of banking regulations, credit regulations, financial globalisation and better monitoring at the global level,” he added.

There cannot be financial globalisation without an increase in level of discipline of credit institutions that have an impact on global economy, he said.

He said discussion on issues of common interests would be held with Chief Minister V. Vaithilingam. “First of all, we will ask their views on development of Puducherry and their priorities. We will talk about the French people in Puducherry, teaching of French, evolution of Lycee Francais and maintenance of heritage. At the end of the year, we are having special French weeks in India and among them we hope to include Puducherry. The question of heritage might be of interest to exploit the specificity of Puducherry,” he said.

He said a decision had been taken to increase the number of Indian students in France. “We will be multiplying by three the number of Indian students and a significant increase in number of French students in India too. A consortium of French and Indian universities has been created to identify the best universities,” he noted.

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