France Will Work With India To Promote ‘Truly Multilateral’ Order

France’s foreign minister has agreed to collaborate with his Indian counterpart on a program to promote “a truly multilateral international order,” according to the French foreign ministry.

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During the call, Jean-Yves Le Drian and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar also agreed to deepen their strategic partnership, which is “based on a relationship of political trust between two great sovereign nations of the Indo-Pacific,” according to a statement released by the ministry on Saturday.

The two ministers agreed to meet next week in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly to work “on a common program of concrete actions to defend together with a truly multilateral international order,” according to the statement.

In a Twitter post, Jaishankar stated that they discussed “developments in the Indo-Pacific and Afghanistan.”

For several years, France has advocated for a European strategy to strengthen economic, political, and defence ties in the region, which stretches from India and China to Japan and New Zealand. The European Union unveiled its Indo-Pacific strategy this week.

The phone call came a day after the French government recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia, following Canberra’s decision to forego a multibillion-dollar order for French submarines in favour of an Indo-Pacific partnership with Washington and London.

In a statement issued on Friday, Le Drian called the cancellation “unacceptable behaviour,” adding that the decision to recall the envoys, at the request of President Emmanuel Macron, was “justified by the exceptional seriousness of the announcements” made by Australia and the United States.

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According to a White House official, the US regrets France’s decision and will continue to work with the country to resolve differences in the coming days.

Australia said on Saturday that it regrets France’s decision, but that it values its relationship with France and will continue to engage with Paris on a variety of issues.