Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent historic visits to the US and France in three weeks have focused on strengthening strategic and economic cooperation in the technology sector. These visits have taken place amidst global political and economic instability, particularly due to the Ukraine war and concerns surrounding China’s rise. On tech, India’s strengths and resources, conduct in dealing with management and transfers and the emerging geopolitics around the sector have given the much-needed thrust for the hesitant US bureaucracy as well the collaborative French establishment. They have proceeded to levels of cooperation that would define many aspects of tech usage, management and proliferation in the next few years up to 2047 when both these bilaterals attain a century-old relationship. The engagements during these visits have emphasised the importance of technology in global geopolitical alignments along with emerging economic opportunities.

The homework on the ground before both these visits has been focussed. A whole-of-government approach involving the industry and academia allowed India to engage more optimally to cover its existing tech gaps and lead the course for future partnerships. India’s emerging tech diplomacy was on full display in the deliberations as tech is becoming an important area of global geopolitical alignments besides the emerging economic opportunities. Two areas that stood out in these bilateral engagements have been defence technology and the various avenues of the digital technology landscape.