India, France, Europe important in avoiding confrontation between two major systems: senior French diplomat Luis Vassy

French diplomat emphasizes importance of India-France relations in higher education exchanges, bridging the gap between major global systems.

India, France, and Europe have an important role to play to make sure that we avoid a confrontation course between the two major systems, Luis Vassy, senior French diplomat and Director of Sciences Po University, Paris, said in the context of the tensions between China and the United States. Amid the debate on visas in the U.S., Canada possibly becoming less open to foreign students and U.K. becoming more complicated, he pitched that France and Sciences Po remain very selective but very open to foreign students, especially from India, and even be a bridge to other parts of the West.

“When we say strategic autonomy, it doesn’t mean to be astride from our tradition allies, but being able to set your own path, accept also that the U.S. might have other priorities in Europe, including in the Indo-Pacific region, and develop our set of partnerships as Europeans,” Mr. Vassy said in a conversation with The Hindu during his visit to India last week, his first since being appointed Director in October 2024.

“So you’re right to say that we are a bit specific in that context because we’ve always wanted to set our analysis a bit independently and act accordingly. So relations with India is actually a key element of that, but we’ve developed our own specific diplomacy in the Middle East, also in the Mediterranean...,” he said to a question if France can be the anchor in Europe given the ongoing geopolitical turbulence. “So these are places where we tried to act independently. We prefer to do it as Europeans, because we believe we are we simply stronger when we put our resources together. But we also accept sometimes take indeed a bit of a specific position,” he remarked.

In this regard, he said it calls for reviewing the way international relations, social sciences and governance are taught to students, who are the future leadership. In 2023, Sciences Po created a first dual joint diploma with the Tata Institute for Social Sciences and in all the University has 14 agreements with Indian universities. Sciences Po has 200 Indian students right now.

On India-France relations, Mr. Vassy said there is this national consensus within France over the relationship with India and from the beginning it has been conceptualised as being on “equal footing”. Terming the bilateral relations as extremely strategic and powerful and the two countries as “bilateral anchors” in the turbulent world, the seasoned diplomat said that Sciences Po wants to participate in the development of these relations in the higher education fronts. “We see India as a kind of intellectual and academic superpower that it is and we want to increase ties with institutions here.”

While Sciences Po is not looking to set up a campus right now in India, they are looking to “massively increase” the exchanges between the two countries. Mr. Vassy said they are well placed to do that because of their identity, the fact that the whole course can be done in English, and when it comes to governance, social sciences, economics, history we are a really good place to be part of this endeavour of increasing higher education exchanges with India. So, right now we don’t have a project of an outright campus here in India, but we certainly want to massively increase the exchanges between the two countries.

Noting that Indian students are present in Australia, the U.K., and the U.S., Mr. Vassy, who served as Cabinet Director to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs between July 2022 and July 2024, said there is something to really develop between continental Europe and India and in that context said Sciences Po is well placed, especially in social sciences and humanities in which it is an elite university at the global level in terms of rankings. The University already has 50% of international students and one third of them start their career outside of France all over the lot of other the world. That’s also what I would like to dig in a little bit, our ability to be a bridge towards other parts of the west, in Northern America or in Europe, he stressed.