India and France have reiterated to strengthen bilateral defence cooperation as a key Pillar of strategic partnership between the two countries. <br/><br/>Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and French Minister for the Armed Forces, Ms Florence Parly today discussed a range of measures to expand military to military ties, including enhancing the scope of their joint exercises, in particular the VARUNA naval exercise scheduled in early 2018. <br/><br/>Both countries will also actively explore additional measures to facilitate operational level interactions between their respective armed forces.<br/><br/>The ministers reiterated their strong intention to further expand bilateral cooperation on counter-terrorism. <br/><br/>Recognising the growing significance of maritime security in the Indo-Pacific and the need for greater maritime domain awareness, India and France to further expand information sharing arrangements building upon the Technical Arrangement on Exchange of White Shipping information signed earlier this year.<br/><br/>The two Ministers also comprehensively reviewed developments in defence equipment and industry cooperation, where France is a major partner. <br/><br/>Our correspondent reports, they agreed to strongly support projects for defence manufacturing under the Make in India initiative as well as promote defence technology and Research and Defence cooperation.