In his distinguished career, His Excellency has earlier served as Ambassador to Indonesia and Australia. He has also been in China, Vietnam and Singapore and has developed extraordinary expertise in the political economy of the South and South East Asian region.
His erudition and experience came to the fore in the talk which expectedly spanned a wide range of issues. From economics to politics, from culture to business, the Ambassador held his own and cogently articulated his vision for the new world order. While nuclear weapons cannot be eliminated, they can certainly be controlled and proliferation can be prevented, he argued pragmatically. France is not exactly enthusiastic about India’s nuclear capability, but at the same time respects India’s right to secure its strategic interests. France, he emphasised, was one of the few countries that has supported India’s claims to the permanent seat in the Security Council because it recognises India’s growing political and economic prowess and crucially sees India as a responsible and reliable nuclear state. Given India’s international conduct he expressed no hesitation that India should be allowed to have access to nuclear technology. He lauded India’s openness and reasoned that the degree of openness of the polity was one of the mechanisms by which India has been able to offset the disadvantages of red tape, coalition politics, infrastructure bottlenecks etc within the country.
He argued that Indo French relations have changed over time from one of dependency to one of partnership. India’s growth has ensured that the foreign assistance afforded by France to India until the 80s has given way to mutually beneficial partnerships in various fields, including culture and of course, business. The Mittal –Arcelor saga, according to him, was in no way an indication of French Policy and certain silly remarks in the French press muddied the real issues in the debate. Examples of companies such as St. Gobain, Renault and, Airbus studded the talk but he predicted that in future more and more SMEs from both sides will occupy positions of eminence in the economic relationship between the two countries. He described the Indo-French cultural relationship is special and highlighted the importance of people-to-people contact in forging strong and sustainable bilateral ties.
Although the audience wanted more interaction, paucity of time drew the lecture to a close. Perhaps another visit by the Ambassador is justified stated Prof. Rajat Kathuria of IMI in his vote of thanks. Aparna, a second year student, spoke in fluent French to thank the Ambassador on behalf of the students which fittingly reflected the growing significance of France and its language in India and of course in IMI!
The programme was concluded by signing of the MOU between the International Management Institute and, IDRAC in the august presence of H.E. Mr. Dominique Girard. The collaboration between the two institutions covers all aspects of management education, namely, of student’s exchange, faculty exchange, joint research and executive education.
Ambassador Girard has been among the long list of speakers to have graced the Silver Jubilee Lecture Series in IMI. Those who have already participated are Swami Bhodananda Saraswathy, Dr. Durval De Noronha Goyos Jr, Mr. Jagdish Sheth, Mr. D.N. Ghosh, Mr. Vinod Dhall, Mr. S Sridhar and Mr. Ravi Bhoothalingam. The idea of the Series is to invite distinguished speakers from various fields to share their experiences, wisdom and knowledge with IMI students. The Series is fully supported by IMI’s distinguished Board of Directors.