India, France decide to coordinate strategies

PARIS: India and France, both with deep stakes in West Asia, have decided to coordinate their strategies in the region where a war between Israel and Iran is looming large.

The issue was among the priority talking points when NSA Ajit Doval met President Emmanuel Macron in Paris last week. The issue figured in Doval's conversations with all his French interlocutors during his two-day visit here, ET has learnt. Doval shared Indian perspectives on West Asia.

India, France and the UAE have formed a trilateral few years back and that could also contribute to peace in the region.


Macron has differed with the Israeli PM on Lebanon. In the past few days, Macron has spoken to US President Joseph Biden, asking him to put pressure on Israel to stop its advances into Lebanon.

"France has big stakes in Lebanon, part of erstwhile Levant. We wait for all the partners to be very vocal and committed with us in order to send this clear message: Israel cannot invade Lebanon today. War is not possible in Lebanon today; it would be a huge mistake, a huge risk of escalation," Macron said in an interview.

Macron in fact has called for an "arms embargo" on the Israeli regime over the latter's ongoing genocidal war against the Gaza Strip, prompting a fiery backlash from the regime's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza," he said.