Pointing to the strategic partnership between India and France and the close cooperation between the two Navies and Air Forces, French Army Chief General Pierre Schill said the two Armies were also looking to deepen cooperation with more exercises and sharing best practices among others. On his bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart Gen. Manoj Pande, he said they exchanged the lessons learnt from the war in Ukraine and how they could manage to increase their capabilities in the future looking at conclusions from the war.
“We had very interesting discussions because, of course, obviously, every army in the world is looking at what happens in Ukraine now. This is an example, a sad example, of a large scale operation, a modern fight. Of course, when you are in Europe, and this is the case of the French Army, we are looking very carefully what happens... Every country in the world is interested, even if it’s far from this war... So, it was a sharing of conclusions...,” Gen. Schill said in an interview to The Hindu.
He was in India to participate in the 13th Indo-Pacific Army Chiefs Conference (IPACC) hosted by India jointly with the U.S. from September 25 to 27, as well as the 47th Indo-Pacific Armies Management Seminar (IPAMS) and 9th Senior Enlisted Leaders Forum (SELF).
To a question on what the discussion was with Gen. Pande over China, Gen. Schill said, “Once again, I think there is the strategic question of the position of our two countries to balance state power competition, including military but also technological, economic power and how this changes the situation in the area.”
On the discussions at the IPACC over Chinese expansion, Gen. Schell said that at their level, as Army Chiefs, the question is not whether “to be against or with” China. “But [it is] rather about the ability of our armies to increase deterrence to preserve peace and regional stability, and also our ability to cooperate with partners in order to be able to have a multilateral approach to support and solve challenges and issues of this area, including the question of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief [HADR], up to some places or moments in which demonstrations of strength or general deterrence can be used in this area.”
Fighting spirit
Elaborating further on the conversation over Ukraine, he said the first conclusion he conveyed to Gen. Pande was about the fighting spirit. “That means, we see how the legitimacy of the aim, the trust within the Army, the support of the population, the way you organise the chain of command with something we call mission command, that means giving some responsibilities to the lower level of units,” Gen. Schill explained.
When it comes to more technical points, he said the paramount thing was the transparency on the battlefield, which comes at a cost and by the employment of drones, satellites, Artificial Intelligence in order to analyse the images of the satellites, electronic warfare, cyber and so on. The next aspect is about the lethality which means drones with the weapons, long range fires, Gen. Schill said. “And as soon as you have transparency and lethality, the enemy has the same,” he observed, which brings the aspect of protection. Those may be some elements we were discussing as two Armies and the aspect of technology that is already there, he said, referring to the involvement of the private industry and India’s efforts at indigenisation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief guest at the French Bastille Day parade on July 14 which also saw 242-member tri-service contingents of the Indian armed forces marching on Champs-Élysées. Gen. Schill made particular reference to the marching skills of the Indian contingents, which had earned lot of praise from the onlookers.
Multilateral cooperation
On the discussions at IPACC, Gen. Schill said it was mainly about multilateral cooperation, multilateral assessment of the situation, dealing with the fact the question of providing freedom of access, a safe environment in the area against threats as also in facing natural disasters, HADR, mainly for the small islands of the Pacific.
To questions on the kind of role that land forces of India and France can forge in the Pacific part of the Indo-Pacific, the French Army Chief referred to the importance of territory and with it the aspect of “sovereignty”, which means “protecting, defending, but also promoting resilience.” Next is the aspect of the “neighbourhood”, which is the Southern Pacific or Southern Indian Ocean. In this regard, talking of cooperation and partnerships with smaller island states as well as bigger countries, Gen. Schill said on discussions with India. “For example, with India, as I mentioned, by the exercise [bilateral ex Shakti], the action at the high level, and some kinds of lessons learned about Ukraine, lessons learn about what India sees of China in its border or of Pakistan .... assessment by both sides, lessons learned on the modern operations .... .
During Mr. Modi’s visit, India and France announced the adoption of a road map for joint actions in the Indo-Pacific region and agreed to expand cooperation in the Pacific while also working on finalising an Indo-French development fund for third countries for joint financing of sustainable development projects in the region.
In the backdrop of the ongoing war in Ukraine, in July, the French Parliament adopted the government’s military programming project of €413 billion over seven years, from 2024-2030, to modernise the French armed forces.
