When Sarkozy meets Singh

Meanwhile, the PM needs to dispel the growing perception around the world that the Communists have not merely blocked India’s civil nuclear initiative but have broken his government’s will to govern at home and take major international initiatives. If the PM wishes to prove otherwise, there is no better occasion than Sarkozy’s visit. Both men seek to redefine the global standing of their nations, but are hobbled by domestic inertia. Sarkozy wants to save France from the dreaded fate of strategic irrelevance in the 21st century. To sustain French national ‘gloire’, Sarkozy is demanding a root-and-branch overhaul of the Republic.

Manmohan Singh has found it impossible to convince the Communists that India must adapt to its increasing weight in the international system, grow out of the ‘fourth world’ mindset, and seize the new opportunities coming its way. As the historical trajectories of India and France intersect, Manmohan Singh and Sarkozy need to look beyond tactical deals on nuclear and defence cooperation. They need to build on the longer-term synergies between the two nations. Manmohan Singh and Sarkozy have another common tradition to tap into — combining the compulsive urge to pronounce on larger global issues with a deeply held sense of national mission.

In the past, the grandiose articulation on global themes by New Delhi and Paris was dismissed as mere posturing. Today, both of them desperately need an expansive framework to pursue their ambitions and mobilise internal political support. In his New Year’s Eve address, Sarkozy underlined France’s urgent need for a ‘policy of civilisation’. Although this has overtones of the French ‘mission civilisatrice’ — the white man’s burden during the colonial era — the focus this time is internal.

The mission is now about building new institutions and promoting values that will help France survive its current challenges. Just as France reinvented itself during the age of Enlightenment, Sarkozy says, France must now come to terms with the era of globalisation.

After unexpected opposition to his diplomacy at home, Manmohan Singh, too, has begun to reaffirm the enduring elements of India’s national strategy. In his speech to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing earlier this month, Manmohan Singh emphasised the commitment to an independent foreign policy and a simultaneous engagement of all the world’s great powers.

As they try to build a shared global vision, Manmohan Singh and Sarkozy could do well to begin with the nuclear challenge. The question before them is not when France can start selling nuclear reactors to India. It is not limited to the attractive prospect of India in a civilian nuclear alliance with France becoming a hub of the globalising atomic industry.

The PM and the French President, instead, must focus on defining the terms for increased use of nuclear energy, preventing its misuse for military purposes and reducing the dangers that arise from existing nuclear arsenals.

France, which generates nearly 80 per cent of its electricity from nuclear sources, is India’s best interlocutor in educating the opponents of nuclear power at home and abroad. Manmohan Singh and Sarkozy must also convince sceptics that increased use of nuclear energy will not lead to a more rapid spread of atomic weapons. Given the profound crisis in the non-proliferation regime, India and France must offer ways to strengthen the nuclear order.

This must necessarily involve the development of new proliferation-resistant technologies and new ways of organising international cooperation in the use of nuclear energy. India and France must promote a new balance between the genuine demands from the developing countries for unhindered use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and iron-clad commitments from them to prevent its diversion for military uses.

France and India must also come up with a renewed political bargain between nuclear and non-nuclear powers. Since Pokharan II a decade ago, India has been so obsessed with joining the nuclear club that it has forgotten its traditional disarmament activism. As India’s status evolves from a non-nuclear nation to a nuclear weapon state, its domestic debate has degenerated towards a sole emphasis on avoiding any constraints on its atomic arsenal.

France and India, must urgently reinforce the international movement for disarmament that has begun to stir again. They should call on the United States and Russia to bring down their arsenals to the lowest possible numbers and offer to undertake a series of steps to reduce the dangers from their own small nuclear arsenals. India and France have a long record of working against the weaponisation of outer space. Manmohan Singh and Sarkozy must address the issue amidst the new threats to space as a peaceful sanctuary.

By actively shaping the emerging agenda for nuclear energy and arms control, India and France can elevate their proposed bilateral nuclear cooperation to a higher plane.

France has the image of being too transactional; Indian diplomacy in recent years has become brazenly instrumental. Manmohan Singh and Sarkozy must dispel the unwanted political reputations by demonstrating their nuclear responsibilities.

The writer is professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore iscrmohanntu.edu.sg