Need for more Indo-French ties to combat terrorism: Ambassador

ahmedabad: ambassador of france in india bernard de montferrand on thursday stressed on a greater indo-french role to check global terrorism especially after september 11 attacks on wtc towers. "there is an increased level of political dialogue between the two countries after the attacks to check this global menace," montferrand said while interacting with newsmen during his visit here to inaugurate the third phase of heritage conservation in the walled city area.emphasising upon a need to develop closer links between india and france to combat terrorism the world over, montferrand added that france itself experienced three waves of terrorist attacks in a span of 15 years by the algerian-based terrorist outfits. "of course military action is one of them, but to choke the financial outflow to these terrorist organisations is very important," the ambassador observed adding that such actions would squeeze life out of terrorism. charting out areas for co-operation between the two countries, the french ambassador said that information in the areas of police, judiciary, intelligence and financial services can be shared to pre-empt any terrorist moves in the respective countries. deliberating further on global terrorism, he said that india and france share a common vision of the world tomorrow and thus, require to address major issues facing the world today. montferrand also called on chief minister narendra modi and showed keen interest in developing trade and business with gujarat. in this context, modi invited the french ambassador to participate in the "resurgent gujarat-business partnership meet-2002", to be held in february in ahmedabad. the chief minister also invited french companies to participate in the same. accepting the invitation, monteferrand proposed the participation of france in the areas of infrastructure development, water management, tourism, agriculture, industries, food processing and technology upgradation. s k shelat, the advisor to the chief minister, explained the details about the incentive policy of foreign direct investment in the state, which had retained "number one" position in the country in industrial investment. the chief minister expressed the state government's eagerness to preserve ancient art and monuments in the arid kutch region and sought co-operation of france in the same.