By IANS
New Delhi : Discarding his prepared text and “speaking from the heart”, French President Nicolas Sarkozy Friday charmed a packed audience of India’s movers and shakers with an impassioned plea for taking the engagement between the countries to new heights, saying “France is the best friend of India”.
Addressing an India-France economic conference, Sarkozy, who arrived here Friday morning on a two-day visit, repeated much of what he had said earlier in the day at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but it was the intensity of his delivery that had the audience on the edge of their seats.
“I just ask you to think: There are those who they are your friends and there are those who truly are your friends. India has a role to play on the global stage and France will help you reach that,” Sarkozy said to thunderous applause.
“I spoke without my notes because I wanted to speak to you from the heart,” he said at one stage, to reinforce what he had stated at he beginning of his address: “You are the country which culturally, we feel the closest. We in France feel close to you. We have always felt that way”.
The audience, comprising political and business leaders from across the spectrum, loved every moment of it. In fact, so large was the turnout that the huge Durbar Hall of the Taj Palace Hotel that cam accommodate close to 700 people was bursting at the seams and the speech had to be relayed by closed circuit TV to people in two other big halls.
It’s not just that Sarkozy said the right things. His body language, expansive gestures and the raw passion that was evident from the effort made it more than clear that the French president more than meant every word he uttered.
In the process, he laid down the agenda for India-France ties in the future.
“What can we do together?” he asked and then provided the answers.
“First, we need to lay the basis for our strategic partnership and give India its rightful place on the global stage. We need an international order that addresses the challenges of the 21st century and not the 21st century.
“Why should the G-8 be a meeting of just eight countries with China, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and India be invited only for lunch on the final day.
“Two-and-a-half billion people of the world are being given a second rate seat. France does not accept this. It is a matter of right for India to be part of an expanded G-13 or G-14. How can you deal with the major problems of the world without India?” Sarkozy maintained.
“We need India to resolve the major crises of the world and not only regional crises,” he added.
The French president spoke in similar vein of the need to give India a permanent seat in an expanded UN Security Council and of the need for an international waiver to enable the resumption of nuclear commerce with India.
As the audience streamed out of the three halls at the conclusion of the function many were visibly impressed – proof enough that this is precisely what Sarkozy set out to do when he discarded his prepared text.