France looks to expand ties with India

In what could be seen as an expanding strategic partnership between the two nations, French Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle will come to India for the first time to participate in a joint exercise, ‘Varuna’, in January 2011.

French chief of defence staff Admiral Edouard Guillaud told reporters in New Delhi on Monday, “We’ve been on India’s side strategically, but leasing a nuclear submarine to it, like Russia is doing, is a political decision. We don’t have enough of them to lease. Six conventional submarines are already being built by India with French assistance and based on French design. We can go even further in our strategic partnership, but it requires political and diplomatic decision.”