NEW DELHI: India and France agreed to strengthen their strategic partnership and economic exchanges in a phone call between the two countries’ leaders on Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron also coordinated their positions on the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza.
India is staring down an ultimatum from Donald Trump to stop buying oil from Russia or face a doubling of tariffs on its exports to the United States to 50 percent as part of the US president’s global trade blitz.
“Had a very good conversation with my friend President Macron,” Modi said in a post on social media, adding that they had agreed to strengthen their “strategic partnership”.
A government statement said Modi and Macron also discussed bilateral cooperation in areas including trade, defence and energy.
It said Macron also shared his assessment of a summit Trump held with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders in Washington on Monday, days after the US leader met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Israel’s war with Gaza was also discussed, the statement said.
Modi said he and Macron had exchanged views on “efforts for the peaceful resolution” of those conflicts.
Oil purchases from Russia have saved India billions of dollars but have also been a key source of revenue for Moscow to fund its military offensive in Ukraine.
The telephone call between Modi and Macron came as Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and then Putin in Moscow.
Jaishankar said after meeting Lavrov that they had “reaffirmed our shared ambition to expand bilateral trade” by increasing India’s exports to Russia but made no direct reference to India’s purchases of Russian oil.
New Delhi has longstanding ties with Russia but has avoided condemning Moscow’s war in Ukraine, instead proposing itself as an intermediary.
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