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India and France held Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) on Tuesday where the two sides took stock of the wide-ranging India-France strategic partnership.
The Foreign Office Consultations come close on the heels of a "fruitful visit" by Florence Parly, Minister for Armed Forces of France on December 17 to hold the third Annual Defence Dialogue with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. "Before this, we had held consultations in Paris on 30 October 2020 where we had exchanged perspectives on the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical changes at a global and regional level. We had also discussed in detail various facets of bilateral cooperation including in the areas of space and energy and reviewed the progress made in other dialogue mechanisms between the two sides," said Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla at the FOC with Francois Delattre, Secretary-General, Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France. "We had also exchanged notes on our close cooperation in multilateral and plurilateral fora, be it the UNSC or trilateral cooperation. This helped us prepare for India's term as a non-permanent member of the UNSC where India and France have worked in very close coordination," he added. Shringla noted that several high-level interactions took place in 2021 that included three ministerial visits from France to India, including those of Barbara Pompili, Minister for Ecological Transition in January, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Foreign Minister in April and most recently the Defence Minister. "Besides these, several dialogues at the working level have also been held over the year, including the 34th and 35th editions of the Strategic Dialogue in January in New Delhi and in November in Paris, respectively, Joint Working Group on Environment in January, among others," he added. (ANI)
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