The French ambassador praised the security forces in New Delhi for working with French officials closely to prevent any attack on the visiting delegation, but said it was “sad” the threat letter had b
The French ambassador praised the security forces in New Delhi for working with French officials closely to prevent any attack on the visiting delegation, but said it was “sad” the threat letter had been leaked. Describing the security forces in New Delhi as very competent, Mr Richier said he was grateful to the security apparatus for working closely with French officials. “It is working very well. They are very competent.”
Asked about the threat letter against Mr Hollande’s visit to India that was received by the French consulate in Bengaluru, he said: “I think it is sad it has leaked. We are looking into this.” He said the French authorities were “accustomed” to getting leaflets of this nature. “We receive plenty of them. Generally it is to create disorder, to raise the attention of the media. They have never proved to be true threats,” he said. However, he noted the latest letter received by them was still being looked into. “I cannot say it is not a true one but there is nothing at the moment which leads us to believe it is real threat.
That is another exc-ited gentleman It is not a sp-ecific threat. It is a paper which claims to be on beha-lf of a terror organisation. But I cannot say that there is a threat here. It may very simply be the kind of paper that we receive very regularly from some people with strange minds who want to create a media event. That is probably the reason why it is leaked,” he said. Mr Richier said the French were in any case under threat across the world.
On Mr Hollande’s visit starting Sunday, the ambassador said the focus was likely mostly in three domains. “The highlight will be terrorism in view of the situation we are in at present, the state of emergency, military operations in Syria, Iraq and in Africa... The situation in India,” he said. Mr Richier said both France and India wanted to defend common interests and values. “This is an occasion not only to remind everybody but to pull a certain number of steps in this direction of combating terrorism and this will be high on the agenda,” he said at his residence.
President Hollande will arrive in Chandigarh on Sunday, and is expected to be received there by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Asked if there will be any development on civil nuclear cooperation, the French ambassador said Areva was being taken over by EDF, which operates 60 nuclear reactors in France. “So now EDF will be in the lead for this kind of operation. That is creating a change in the way nuclear negotiations are held. But that is the main development which will probably been taken into account,” he said.
Mr Richier said the second focus will be climate change, and both sides will follow up on the decisions taken at the Paris climate conference. “We will also work on energy storage. We will, of course, have an element of solar. We will have also an announcement in the field of space. There will be a new space programme project in relation to observation and prevention of climate change. We will have projects in wind energy. Investments will be announced,” he said, adding there will also be cooperation in marine biotechnology.
