India-France-UAE virtual meeting boosts trilateral cooperation

India, France, and UAE trilateral focal points meeting were held virtually, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Wednesday.

The discussions between the officials of the three nations focussed on cooperation as per the Joint Roadmap agreed upon last year.

"India-France-UAE Trilateral Focal Points meeting held virtually," the official spokesperson of MEA, Randhir Jaiswal wrote in a post on X.

"Discussions covered progress in trilateral cooperation as per the Joint Roadmap agreed in Feb 2023, including in areas of economy, infrastructure, innovation, energy, environment, culture, education & P2P exchanges," the post added.

At the beginning of February 2023, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra participated in the India-France-UAE Trilateral Dialogue and discussed taking the cooperation forward in the fields of defence, energy and environment, innovation and people-to-people exchanges, according to the statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs.

This meeting came as the follow-up after the Foreign Ministers of India-France-UAE adopted a roadmap during their telephone call on February 04, 2023.

The three foreign ministers had met for the first time in a trilateral format in September 2022 on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

They agreed to establish a formal trilateral cooperation initiative, with the aim of expanding cooperation in various fields of mutual interest in acknowledgement of their shared desire to promote international stability and prosperity and to further build upon the constructive and collaborative ties that exist between the three countries.

At that time, the three sides had agreed that the trilateral initiative would serve as a forum to promote the design and execution of cooperation projects in the fields of energy, with a focus on solar and nuclear energy, as well as in the fight against climate change and the protection of biodiversity, particularly in the Indian Ocean region, as per a joint statement.

For this purpose, the three countries planned to explore the possibility of working with the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) to pursue concrete, actionable projects on clean energy, the environment, and biodiversity.

The statement further explained that the trilateral initiative will serve as a platform to expand cooperation between the three countries' development agencies on sustainable projects.

India-France-UAE agreed that they will seek to ensure greater alignment of their respective economic, technological, and social policies with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

"In support of these endeavours, a range of trilateral events will be organized in the framework of the Indian Presidency of the G20 and the UAE's hosting of COP-28 in 2023, respectively," the statement had said.
The three countries also agreed to expand their cooperation through initiatives such as the Mangrove Alliance for Climate led by the UAE and the Indo-Pacific Parks Partnership led by India and France.