France & India (cont.)

.... Prof. Racine’s visit occurred just after President Bush’s travel in India and Pakistan, which belong to a region characterized recently both by crisis and promise. In a time of globalization India is an important partner for France and the EU, as well, as the world's largest democracy and one of the biggest economies today.

Jean-Luc Racine’s lecture entitled “India’s Global Policy: U.S Attraction, Multidirectional Initiatives and Internal Debates” was well received by our colleagues at South Asia studies and their regular audience.

A brief summation of his talk: “Emerging India is busy redefining her external policy, in a quest for comforting her economic growth, mastering updated technologies and enhancing her new international status. The Indo-US joint statement released on July 18th 2005 by U.S. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a landmark in this regard. If implemented, it would boost India’s civil nuclear energy and space programs, and strengthen the defense relationship between Washington and New Delhi. U.S. unilateralism is eager to offer India a special status, at a time when the European Union, supposed to champion multipolarity, appears weakened by the failure of her Constitutional Treaty.”

— Michelle Bertho