Basic principle of French Armed Forces is unicity of command: General Valentin Seiler

“That’s only possible with a joint command. When you go for an operation, it’s important to have the unicity of command,” he told The Indian Express in an interview.

The French military has at least 10 joint commands, including major overseas bases such as New Caledonia, La Reunion, and French Polynesia, the General said.

Seiler was in India for the seventh edition of the India-France joint military exercise SHAKTI, which concluded on Sunday at Umroi in Meghalaya.

At present, the Indian Armed Forces are in the process of putting in place a final plan to establish integrated theatre commands.

Last month, during an official trip of India’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan to France, the French military officers had shared how its military had transitioned into working under joint military commands, officials familiar with the matter said.

Addressing a query over the relevance of traditional warfare platforms such as tanks and artillery guns in the context of the ongoing global conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Palestine crisis, General Seiler said that they “still hold much relevance in modern wars”, even as he focused on the importance of newer technologies like drones in the battlefield.

The French Army has the Jaguar EBRC light-armoured vehicles and Leclerc main battle tanks in their inventory.

In modern warfare, achieving an end is done jointly with the help of land forces, airpower, cyber warfare and others, he said. “But, in the end, you have to conquer something among the people. It always finishes on the ground,” he said, adding that that is the reason tanks, and “other armoured and artillery equipment are still needed in modern wars”.

Talking about the French Army’s focus on the Indo-Pacific region, he said, “France is a balancing power there and the country has an interest in the region which is also because of their overseas bases in New Caledonia, La Reunion. Approximately 1.6 million French citizens are living in the Indo-Pacific region and we have an interest in protecting them.”

To ensure the security and stability of the region, the French Army Chief of Staff General Pierre Schill had decided to move the focus of 6 Light Armoured Brigade towards the Indo-Pacific a year ago, he said.

For France, other planned engagements in the Indo-Pacific include military exercises with Japan and Australia next year. He said there are several engagements with key partners in the Indo-Pacific region and India is one of the “top partners for the country”.

Talking about SHAKTI, he said it is important for military cooperation between the two countries. “The aim of SHAKTI is to develop French-Indian interoperability and core infantry skills,” he said, adding that France will propose another military exercise with Indian forces next year in France.

A statement released earlier by the Ministry of Defence had stated that Exercise SHAKTI will aim at enhancing the joint military capabilities of both sides to undertake multi-domain operations in a sub-conventional scenario under Chapter VII of the United Nations Mandate. It had said it would enhance the level of defence cooperation, further fostering bilateral relations between the two friendly nations.

“The joint exercise will focus on operations in the semi-urban and mountainous terrain. Objectives to be achieved from the joint training are a high degree of physical fitness, rehearsing and refining drills for operations at the tactical level and sharing of best practices,” it had stated.

It had further added that tactical drills to be practised during the exercise will include response to a terrorist action of capturing a defined territory, the establishment of a joint command post, the establishment of an intelligence and surveillance centre, securing of a helipad/landing site, small team insertion and extraction, special heliborne operations, cordon and search operations besides employment of drones and counter-drone systems, among others.

Talking about the lessons drawn from the exercise, the senior French officer said it has enabled meeting operational readiness objectives which will be useful to French legionnaires in future. “Shakti was useful in taking into account the international dimension present in any military engagement. Two forces, with strong but different operational cultures and experience, were able to mutually enrich each other during the exercise,” he said.