French minister asks India to join hands against America

NEW DELHI: Castigating the US for its unilateral military action in Iraq, France on Monday indicated that countries with "a similar vision" like France, India and others should come together to act as a counter-weight against Washington in international affairs.
"But let us not delude ourselves, a country can be heard only if it has credible defence," said visiting French defence minister Michele Alliot-Marie, after wide-ranging talks with defence minister George Fernandes and other senior officials.
In this context, she said India and France should further "intensify" their long-term defence cooperation on joint development, technology transfer and procurement of hi-tech weapons systems. France, incidentally, is already the largest military hardware and software supplier to India after Russia.
Holding that forging of closer military cooperation with like-minded countries had become a necessity in the present turmoil in international relations, she said the world must firmly move towards multi-polarity.

Though the French minister did not go into specifics, she said: "Several new contracts were at various levels of discussion" with India. France is also committed to upgradation of the weapons systems sold to India in the past.
Alliot-Marie, however, did say that the "Scorpene" submarine deal — estimated to be a $1.8 billion contract for the construction of six submarines at the Mazagaon Docks in Mumbai — was likely to be finalised before year-end.