India, Sept. 29 -- France and India can deepen bilateral and multilateral partnerships to provide stability and predictability to the world order in unpredictable times when the "instrumentalisation of tariffs" is becoming counterproductive, the top French diplomat has said.

Anne-Marie Descotes, secretary general of France's foreign ministry who travelled to India last week for political consultations, also spoke about cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, critical technology, civil nuclear energy and counter-terrorism in an interview with HT.

Q. At a time of uncertainty and turbulence on the geo-economic front because of the policies of the US administration, how can India and France jointly strengthen the world order and free commerce?

A:...