Ravi Shankar Prasad Leads Indian Delegation in Paris to Deepen Strategic, Anti-Terror Cooperation

As India’s global diplomatic outreach gathers unprecedented momentum, a high-profile, cross-party delegation led by senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has arrived in Paris for a strategic engagement with French lawmakers, policy thinkers, and the Indian diaspora.

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The delegation’s mission is to reinforce India’s zero-tolerance stance on terrorism and emphasize the country's principled, calibrated response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.

The Indian team, which includes parliamentarians Dr. Daggubati Purandeswari, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Ghulam Ali Khatana, Dr. Amar Singh, Samik Bhattacharya, Dr. M. Thambidurai, former Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar, and former Deputy National Security Advisor Ambassador Pankaj Saran, brings deep diplomatic and legislative expertise to the table.

The delegation will engage members of the French Senate and National Assembly, as well as representatives of strategic institutions and think tanks in Paris.

France, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a founding member of the EU, holds immense influence in shaping counter-terror narratives globally. India’s outreach to Paris is a deliberate choice aimed at reinforcing democratic alliances committed to rules-based order, sovereignty, and transnational security.

Paris is also home to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which India has cited repeatedly in diplomatic conversations about Pakistan’s record on terror financing.

The delegation is expected to build on India-France strategic convergence on key issues such as cyber security, defense cooperation, and multilateral engagement against terror financing. By bringing to France a message of calibrated response—grounded in responsibility, legal justification, and strategic clarity—India aims to mobilize long-term support across Europe for action-oriented counter-terror diplomacy.

This visit follows concurrent Operation Sindoor engagements in Seoul, where an Indian delegation met with former Korean foreign ministers and counter-terror experts, and Kinshasa, Congo, where another parliamentary group is strengthening regional African ties. In Kuwait and Guyana, Indian MPs are engaging civil societies and regional leaders to unify voices against terrorism.

With France being a long-standing defense partner and vocal supporter of India’s counter-terror resolutions at the United Nations, this leg of the outreach is crucial for synchronizing policy responses and multilateral backing.

The Indian delegation is also expected to address issues related to online radicalization, misuse of digital infrastructure by terror groups, and the role of diaspora in counter-extremism narratives.

By sending a delegation of former union ministers, seasoned diplomats, and current lawmakers, New Delhi is reiterating not just its national consensus on combating terrorism but also the intellectual, legal, and ethical robustness of its response to external threats.