PARIS: French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin is to arrive in Islamabad on Aug 3 after a stopover in New Delhi the previous day, with the declared objective of continuing France’s efforts at mediating between Pakistan and India, but also to discuss the future of France’s bilateral relations with Pakistan
A decision to play an important role in mediation between the two countries was taken by President Chirac last May in the wake of the terrorist killing of eleven French defence employees in Karachi on May 8. They were part of a delegation of several dozen employees from the Direction de la Construction Navale (DCN) shipyard at Cherbourg, that is under contract with the Pakistani Navy for the construction of three Agosta-90B submarines.
At the time of the attack, the employees were working on the second of three submarines, this as part of a 1994 accord that is now being called into question in France, and is at the centre of a parliamentary report that suggests that France revises its defence relationship with Pakistan.
Although no firm agenda has yet been published, the French Foreign Ministry did note at Friday’s press briefing that that the subjects to be dealt with in Islamabad “will concern overall our bilateral relations and the major international and regional issues of the day.”
French defence ministry sources say that discussion of the DCN submarine contract will be “high on the agenda” of the talks between Mr de Villepin and his Pakistani counterpart, Mr Sattar. Ever since the terrorist attack on France’s nationals, calls have been made, notably in the French National Assembly, especially by the mayor of Cherbourg Bernard Cazeneuve, to stop all military collaboration between the two countries.
As a powerful member of the Assembly’s defence commission, Mr Cazeneuver is the author of a report that calls into question the 1994 contract and suggests that France reduce the level of its military collaboration with Pakistan. A major French trade union, the Confederation generale du travail (CGT) has demanded for its part that France not proceed with construction of the third Agosta-90B submarine as called for in the 1994 contract.
President Chirac is understood, however, to want not only to continue the collaboration, but also step up relations between the two countries, perhaps offering Pakistan, according to an Elysee Palace source, “a more humane alternative” to the United States, as American pressure on Pakistan, notably with regard to taking part in the US global campaign against terrorism, has been perceived by France, in the words of the Presidential source, as being “a mite too heavy-handed.”
One of the key tenets of the new foreign policy that Mr Chirac is understood to be setting into place is that France play the role of intermediary between Washington and countries like Pakistan, where, notes the Presidential source, “France’s traditionally close links with Asia, Africa and the Middle East allow it to have a better understanding of the needs of countries perhaps not properly understood by Washington which has a way of not taking into consideration their local particularities, and sometimes, as a result, dictating their behaviour, which may or may not be the present situation with Pakistan.”