'India, France to promote people-to-people exchanges'

PANAJI: India and France will work on promoting people-topeople exchanges, which is one of the important areas in the strategic partnership between the two nations, French Ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler has said.

The pillar of the bilateral relationship is the strategic partnership, he said.

"One of the key areas where we would like to work more in future is people-to-people exchanges. There is no point in talking about strategic partnership for next 50 years if you don't prepare the next generation," Ziegler said.

French President Emmanuel Macron, during his visit to India last week, had rolled out the red carpet for Indian youths, researchers and entrepreneurs, saying he would be proud if they made France their entry point to Europe and be their "long time strategic partner".

"During his visit to India, our president stressed on educational cooperation, research, attracting more Indian students, French students...and I think this enhancement of people-to-people exchanges will be one of the key issues of our relationship in future," the ambassador said.

"That is the agreement on mutual recognition of our university degrees which will increase an influx of students, either French or Indian, visiting partner countries," he said.

The two countries also has an inter-governmental agreement on migration and mobility, which will further ease access to visa, like working visas to students and researchers who want to enter France, he said. Reflecting a growing depth in defence ties, India and France earlier this month inked a strategic pact providing for the use of each other's military facilities, including opening naval bases to warships.

The agreement came amid China's growing military expansion in the Indo-pacific region.

However, Ziegler said, "the accord is not aiming at decreasing anybody's influence. It is a recognition that India and France are both Indian Ocean marine countries." Both the countries share common challenges in the form of terrorism, piracy and freedom of navigation, he said. There are two million French citizens living in the Indian Ocean region, he said. During the meeting of heads of both the nations, there was a joint statement over their cooperation in the Indian Ocean, Ziegler said.

"We also had an important inter-governmental agreement with effects on our military cooperation on reciprocal logistical support, which means access to our naval bases all over the world," he said.

"The second is general security agreement which allows us to exchange classified information and documents that will help in improving our naval cooperation," he said. "Both the nations are facing similar challenges in the Indian Ocean. The idea is to address these challenges together because we are a part of the same region," he added.