In Paris, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been touting India as an anchor in an unsteady world. His line of argument: trust is now on a par with trade when it comes to how nations get along. He put a fine point on the ties with France and the changes within India, suggesting they are the bedrock of the country’s international profile.
Trust reshapes diplomacy and supply chains
Speaking to some of the Indian diaspora at Salle Playel, Modi made it plain that market size isn’t the only thing on the table anymore. “Reliability is what matters when you’re talking about supply chains and working with someone for the long haul,” he said, and he’s been positioning India to be the one to deliver on that.
“I’ve seen when it was all about trade, but you can’t have a relationship without trust these days,” he put it. Every nation is after a supply chain they can rely on, he noted, and in his view, India is the one to do business with.
There’s a clip from the day that has him saying 'India is shaping the future‘ and that commerce and trust are of equal weight. It’s a nod to the fact that for a lot of capitals, economic security is higher up on the to-do list than it used to be.
France-India: from partners to a stabilising pillar
With so much noise in the world, be it from geopolitics or new technology, Modi sees the bond between the two countries as a way to offset the uncertainty. “We have a partnership that is a pillar of stability and trust,” he said.
They have made it a Special Global Strategic Partnership, and to put some teeth in it, he put forward a plan for next year: the TRISHNA satellite will be put in orbit by India and France. “It will be part of the solution for water and food security,” he said.
Domestic transformation as the basis for credibility
For Modi, you can’t separate how the world sees us from what we are doing here in India. He made a point of it in France, where he has come to mark 12 years of his government in power. “It is a mark of our democracy that it has put a tea seller in my seat,” he said.
It’s not just the numbers, he says. “We have lifted 25 crore people out of poverty in 12 years. This is about giving people the means to change their lives, not just about GDP.”
Looking ahead, he sees an India that is putting in place an ecosystem for what’s to come. He spoke of the drive in our youth, the new opportunities for the farmer, and the role of women in leadership, all of it channelling into the sectors that will define the next few decades.
A broader message to global forums
What he was saying in Paris is in keeping with a larger diplomatic effort. At the G7 in Evian, he was firm on the need for trust. “Bharat’s word to the summit was this: for governance to work, it has to be inclusive; for growth to last, it has to be shared; and for technology to be of use to humanity, it has to be trusted.”
There was no mistaking the tone in Paris, with the crowd of the diaspora calling out ‘Bonjour Modi’ and ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. The idea is to be seen as a provider of solutions. The message was the same from start to finish: make trust your strategy, let technology be the enabler, and let partnerships do the rest.
What to watch next
If you follow the trust-first angle, here is where to look:
– The TRISHNA satellite, coming up in the next year
– What comes of the Special Global Strategic Partnership on the ground
– How the talk of inclusive, trusted tech holds up at the various forums
– Any further steps to make the supply chain with France more robust
Why this framing matters now
When you are a government and you don’t like being caught off guard, risk is as much a factor as demand. By making India out to be a safe bet, Modi is trying to use what we have done at home to open doors, with France being a prime example where you can get some advanced tech and see a project through.
The talk of social mobility and the poor being left behind is meant to back that up. The theory is simple: if the internal job is done right, the external side of things will be more believable, and you will be able to put together the kind of partnerships that are based on both results and good faith.
It all comes down to three things: some measure of calm in a rowdy world, tech for the public good, and a society solid enough to make promises and keep them. Whether he was in Evian or Paris, the point was made: trust is what sets you apart, and India wants to be the one you can count on.
