The significance of Macron’s visit to India

Anxious about U.S. unilateralism, France and India have historically pursued ”strategic autonomy″ in foreign policy and often sought to politically distance themselves from Washington, according to The Indian Express’s international affairs editor C. Raja Mohan. But with a second Trump term now a real possibility, the two countries should not actively work on countering U.S. policy and instead focus on “the real questions at hand” regardless of Washington’s stance, he argued. These include India’s role in European security, France’s role in deterring war in Asia provoked by Beijing, and jointly defending Red Sea trade routes, which is “more important for India and Europe than the U.S.,” Mohan said.

Washington has previously expressed skepticism over Paris’s relative ease in maintaining friendly ties with Delhi, but France is “in some cases better placed to build relationships of trust″ in the Indo-Pacific, which ultimately benefit the U.S. foreign policy agenda, according to World Politics Review. While Delhi might tap France over the U.S. for deals on weapons and other defense equipment, it is preferable than Modi going to Putin for arms contracts, the editorial argued. The Western Indian Ocean is one of Washington’s “blind spots,” it said, and having the French military stationed there could help counter China’s growing presence in the region.

Macron is visiting India just days after Modi inaugurated a controversial Hindu temple built on the site of a former mosque in the northern city of Ayodhya, and Modi played into the publicity by gifting Macron a replica of the temple on Thursday. Conservative commentators including former Times Now editor-in-chief Rahul Shivshankar are lauding Macron for accepting the gift. However, diaspora activists in France have blasted Macron’s appearance in India, with one Modi critic telling L’Humanité that his visit is “a scandal” that legitimizes Islamophobic politics that have fueled tensions between India’s Hindus and Muslims.