FRANCE-INTELLIGENCE 2 LAST

To a question about how close the two countries are in
tackling terrorism, Bonnafont said, "Your Prime Minister
(Manmohan Singh) and our President (Nicholas Sarkozy) have
given very strong instructions to their Services to work more
closely together and it is on the top priority of our agenda".

The Ambassador said India and France are very active in
political dialogue and defence cooperation as his country
believes that India is the force of stability in Asia and the
world and "it is important that we coordinate".
France supports India's bid for a permanent membership in
an expanded United Nations Security Council.
France, the fifth largest economy in the world, wants
to double its trade with India by 2012. However, the economic
crisis has slowed down the process. "We have set 2012 as the
timeframe when the trade should be doubled in comparison with
2006. We are on track, but the economic crisis is not helping.
But we are giving our maximum efforts," Bonnafont said.
France estimates that its trade with India will reach
12 billion euros by 2012. According to an estimate, the
Indo-French trade relations facilitated business to the tune
of USD 6.2 billion during 2005-06.
The European country says that in the field of economic
cooperation, it wants to put emphasis on civilian nuclear
energy and power generation in particular.
"We have signed a very important agreement last year
(nuclear agreement) and we are now in the (process of)
implementation of this agreement," Bonnafont said. PTI RRD
SDE


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