India’s Accelerating Minilateral Engagements: Trilateral Agreement between India, France, and UAE
In February 2023, France, India, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced an ambitious new trilateral partnership aimed at collaborating on several areas, such as defence, technology, and energy. The foreign ministers of the three countries - Catherine Colonna of France, S. Jaishankar of India, and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the UAE - held their first meeting in a trilateral format in September last year, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. The three ministers held a follow-up phone call on February 4 to finalise a roadmap for implementing their trilateral initiative. ?
As per a joint statement, the initiative will serve as a means to strengthen collaboration on sustainable projects among the development agencies of the three nations. Additionally, the agencies will strive to harmonize their economic, technological, and social policies with the goals of the Paris Agreement. According to the statement, the trilateral initiative between the three parties will function as a platform for promoting the planning and implementation of cooperative projects in energy, specifically in the fields of solar and nuclear energy, as well as in addressing climate change and preserving biodiversity, particularly in the Indian Ocean region. The statement further declared that the three nations will explore the possibility of collaborating with the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) to execute practical projects centred on clean energy, environmental conservation, and biodiversity. To facilitate these efforts, a series of trilateral events will be held during the Indian Presidency of the G20 and the UAE's hosting of COP-28 in 2023.
Key Areas of Cooperation
Indian Ocean Region
The trilateral initiative was established to facilitate collaboration projects in energy, with a special emphasis on solar and nuclear energy, as well as efforts to combat climate change and safeguard biodiversity, particularly in the Indian Ocean region. The three parties have agreed that this initiative will serve as a forum to promote the planning and execution of cooperative projects.
To tackle the challenges facing the Indian Ocean region, the three nations have agreed to consider collaborating with the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) to implement practical projects focused on clean energy, environmental protection, and biodiversity. The three partners have planned a series of events during India's G-20 presidency and the UAE's upcoming hosting of COP 28 in 2023, where they can advance their shared objectives.
Defence as a Critical Area of Cooperation
The three nations have identified defence as a crucial area for establishing closer cooperation, and thus, they are striving to "further promote compatibility, joint development and co-production, and explore opportunities for more collaboration and training between their respective defence forces." France, India, and the UAE are ideal partners for enhancing their defence agenda, given that both India and the UAE have already acquired French Rafale fighters.
Moreover, France's first military base in the Gulf, located in Abu Dhabi, is another aspect of the security focus in these emerging partnerships. The military base is strategically positioned on the Strait of Hormuz, which is a crucial passageway between the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf.
Climate Change as a Focal Point
In addition to their cooperation in other areas, the three countries also aim to address climate change and biodiversity conservation. The UAE has taken the lead on the Mangroves Alliance, and India committed to this initiative during the Cairo conference on climate change in November 2022. The trilateral partnership also plans to tackle issues such as single-use plastic pollution, desertification, and food security, by promoting and undertaking initiatives related to the International Year of Millets-2023.
Furthermore, the trio intends to broaden their collaborative agenda by leveraging existing platforms and initiatives such as the Indo-Pacific Parks Partnership led by India and France. India and France recognize the contribution of National Parks, Marine Protected Areas, and Wildlife Sanctuaries to national and international tourism, which is often associated with environmental degradation. To address this issue, effective tourist management resources and instruments are needed, which is currently a gap area. Both India and France are members of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People and have established the Indo-Pacific Parks Partnership (I3P) to promote a sustainable approach in the Indo-Pacific region by developing protected areas and natural parks in a strong, innovative, and multi-dimensional partnership.
Aligning Economic, Technological, and Social Policies
To ensure that their economic, technological, and social policies are more consistent with the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat climate change, India, France, and the UAE have also agreed to enhance cooperation and accelerate actions and investments required for a sustainable low-carbon future. By aligning their policies, the trilateral initiative will serve as a platform for the development agencies of the three countries to work together on long-term sustainable projects, including exchanging information on emerging infectious disease threats and pandemic preparedness.
In addition, the trilateral statement acknowledged the importance of the circular economy and expressed a strong desire to collaborate in this area under the auspices of India's Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment). The discussions also emphasized the significance of deepening cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, specifically in areas such as maritime security, regional infrastructure and connectivity, energy and food security, and supply chain resilience.
India’s Emerging Minilateral Engagements
France, India, and the UAE have agreed to enhance cooperation to combat emerging threats from infectious diseases and future pandemics, given the devastating impact of COVID-19. They have also committed to strengthening collaboration in multilateral forums such as the WHO, Gavi, the Global Fund, and Unitaid.
France has been a close strategic partner of India for several decades, with both countries sharing a vision for a multipolar world and effective multilateralism. Similarly, India's relationship with the UAE has gained momentum in recent years, with increased outreach to the Arab world. Although the large Indian diaspora in the UAE is a significant factor, the relationship has grown beyond that.
During a meeting of the focal points of the France-India-UAE trilateral partnership in Paris, India's Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra engaged with his counterparts on areas for trilateral cooperation in defence, energy and the environment, innovation, and people-to-people exchanges. This meeting followed the foreign ministers' call and the establishment of an action plan for their trilateral cooperation, highlighting the strong intent and support for the trilateral partnership in all three countries capitals.
The India-France-UAE trilateral partnership aligns with India's growing engagement in the Gulf region, including its participation in the I2U2 group, also known as the West Asia Quad, comprising India, Israel, the UAE, and the US. The West Asia Quad aims to deepen economic ties and collaborate on water, transportation, clean energy, and food security.
The UAE is strategically significant for India due to the presence of a large Indian diaspora and the country's substantial remittances from Gulf nations, including the UAE. The trilateral partnership is part of India's "minilateral" strategy, which involves collaborating with smaller groups to achieve diplomatic and strategic objectives in a multipolar world where the United Nations is considered outdated in the face of numerous conflicts and crises.
Conclusion
In 2022, the United Arab Emirates participated in the annual Varuna exercise hosted by India and France for the first time. With shared strategic interests and strong bilateral connections, the India-France-UAE trilateral is expected to emerge as a powerful and diverse partnership that will shape the Indo-Pacific strategic dynamics, including maritime security, infrastructure, and connectivity.
India’s relationships with France and the UAE have grown through bilateral and minilateral initiatives. With France, India, and the UAE committed to the trilateral partnership and having the material means to make it happen, the group has the potential to become an action-oriented minilateral in the broader Indo-Pacific region. The three countries are likely to equally focus on hard security issues while pursuing an agenda consequential for much of the Global South. The India-France partnership has also been viewed as a framework for East-West cooperation.
Reference list
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(The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent views of CESCUBE.)
