India, France sign key security deal |
India and France on March 10 signed an accord aimed at stepping up military cooperation in the Indian Ocean. Under the deal signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Emmanuel Macron, each country will open its naval bases to warships from the other. China`s territorial ambitions in the South China Sea already worry world powers. And its move into the vast Indian Ocean — stretching from the Suez Canal to the Malacca Strait — has heightened that concern. Modi and Macron are particularly anxious as China extended its military presence by opening a naval base in the eastern African nation of Djibouti in 2017. As already known, Beijing is also building up its trading network — the so-called One Belt One Road initiative — which involves many of the Asian and African nations that line the Indian Ocean. It has built a port in Pakistan`s Gwadar, taken a 99-year-lease on Sri Lanka`s Hambantota and bought a number of tiny islands in the Maldives. All of this has alarmed India, which sits at the heart of the Indian Ocean region. India and France have inked 14 key agreements after talks between PM Modi and President Macron. New Delhi experts see Chinese companies investing in assets ranging from airports to the Bangladesh stock exchange as Beijing`s trojan horses.
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