PARIS: A particularly delicate edition of the India-France Strategic Dialogue opens here on September 2, a clear 10 days before a three-day official visit to France by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Indian side is led by National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan while the French delegation is headed by Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, President Chirac's chief diplomatic adviser.

The talks will focus on defence — several contracts for the purchase of military hardware from the French are pending — bilateral trade, cooperation in civilian nuclear energy, international terrorism, U.N. reform, climate change and development issues. The two sides are expected to exchange views on developments in their respective regions.

U.S. factor

The talks this year take place at a difficult time for France. Paris feels uncomfortable about India's increasingly closer ties with the United States. Washington's use of political pressure tactics in order to win lucrative contracts is no secret and the French are apprehensive they might lose out to the U.S. on major sales in the defence, aviation and civilian nuclear energy fields. Tensions between Washington and Paris that developed in the wake of the Iraq war have not completely vanished, and hawks in the Pentagon would be happy to stymie a contract for the purchase of Mirage fighter jets by India from France.

French officials have not hesitated to spell out their concerns, telling their Indian counterparts that New Delhi has neglected the bilateral relationship and that it appears "disinterested," diplomatic sources say. France was the first to show support for India when New Delhi went openly nuclear in 1998 and co-sponsored the resolution on India's bid for a U.N. Security Council seat. Paris is of the opinion that all this effort should, logically, bear some fruit.

France is keen on selling 126 Mirage fighter jets to India. But there are competing offers from the Americans who are willing to sell F-16s and F-18s, while the Russians are proposing MiG-29s. Although the Indian Air Force has made plain its preference for the Mirage, other factors such as pricing, delivery time and political considerations also come into play and Paris would have to make an additional effort in order to secure the deal.

France is particularly unhappy about India's "inability to make up its mind" over the purchase of six Scorpene submarines for the Navy, a point made clear to former Indian envoys Savitri Kunadi and Dilip Lahiri, who retired last month.

Now, a German sub from Howaldswereke-Deutch Werft, the HDW Class-214, is in the running at a cost that is approximately 30 per cent cheaper than the French offer.

HDW is reported to have informed the Indian Navy that the Class-214 could be integrated with the submarine to land missile systems, including the American Sub-Harpoon or the Russian Klub currently used by the Navy's Kilo class subs. It was the absence of these systems that had encouraged the Navy to consider the much more expensive Scorpenes in the first place.

Because of inflation and the stalled negotiations, the French had further hiked the price tag from the original $3.2 billion to $4.6 billion for the six subs.

Informed sources now say that the French have offered to absorb those increases.

Last May, a row erupted in the Indian press over the purported remarks by the French Ambassador to India, Dominique Girard, suggesting that "factors other than commercial" might have influenced India's decision to opt for Boeing rather than Airbus planes to renew Air India's ageing fleet. Summoned by India's Foreign Secretary, Mr. Girard said he had been "misquoted."

The purchase of 43 Airbus planes for Indian Airlines is now on the front burner.

Sensitive to French concerns, India has set up a three-member special committee to re-negotiate its contract with Airbus after it was reported that the European manufacturer was giving more favourable terms to certain South-east Asian airlines. Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has been quoted as saying that the decision will be taken "very, very quickly, within a matter of weeks."

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