French Interests in Indian Ocean Region: A Path for Defence and Energy Security

Abstract

The Indian Ocean has occupied a very important place in the history of mankind. Almost all the countries of the world are interested in the Indian ocean and most of the developed countries have bases in the Indian ocean, namely USA, Russia, Germany, China, UK, Japan and France. The littoral countries are mostly developing nations and henceforth don’t hesitate to provide bases to these countries. The bases are purely established for military purposes and also to protect the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean to see that energy supply is not interrupted in the time of any crisis in the region. France has shown a very keen interest in the Indian Ocean and still retains the le reunion islands, Mayotte and latest addition is its presence in Abu Dhabi. With India also France maintains very good relations and have also conducted many naval exercises and supplied submarines to India and Pakistan. The French interest is also related to defence and energy security. This paper tries to briefly show the importance of the Indian Ocean to France and analyse its relations with the littoral countries of the Indian Ocean.