India-France-UAE Trilateral: Building Minilaterals On The Strength Of Bilaterals

NEW DELHI: On ‘The Gist‘, Ambassador (Dr) Mohan Kumar, Former India Envoy to France, and Dean & Professor, O.P. Jindal Global University in conversation with StratNews Global Associate Editor Amitabh P. Revi.

Ambassador Mohan Kumar discusses the increased foreign policy focus on minilateral and plurilaterals, India, France and the UAE “establishing a formal trilateral cooperation initiative”, the call between External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, his France and UAE counterparts, Catherine Colonna and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan to “adopt a roadmap for the implementation of the initiative”, which “will serve as a forum to promote the design and execution of cooperation projects in the fields of energy, with a focus on solar and nuclear energy”, the three countries “acknowledging that defence is an area of close cooperation”, and that “efforts will be undertaken to further promote compatibility, and joint development and co-production, whilst seeking out avenues for further collaboration and training between the three defence forces”, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra taking part in the Paris Focal Points’ Meeting of the India-France-UAE Trilateral Dialogue as a follow up to the trilateral initiative roadmap adopted by the Foreign Ministers, in which “three focal points discussed practical steps to take the cooperation forward including in the fields of defence, energy and environment, innovation and people-to-people exchanges.