(REOPENS DEL46)

"...What we would like to have and what we have, is a dialogue with India on how to understand the content of the law. Because when you enter into a big story, like the EPR project, you have to understand under which legal umbrella you are and what are the legal consequences of that law with respect to the Indian law. But it is also the responsibility to understand what it implies," Richier said. He also said that France had been open to transfer of technology to India as in Scorpene submarine. Earlier it had transferred the short range missile technology to India and for helicopters. Elaborating on Indo-French relations, the Ambassador said India could benefit from his country in the field of urban development, education and science and technology. He said many French companies had set up research and development centres in India and President Hollande is scheduled to visit the French cement manufacturing company -- Lafarge's centre in Mumbai "to see for himself the development taking place. Richier, however, said that economic relations between the two countries had not increased as expected during the meeting of former French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, "due to slowdown in India and Europe." On the issue of Libya and Mali, he said that it was not a military intervention. "There is some misunderstanding here, what happened in Libya was there was no military intervention. What happened in Libya was that they (Gaddafi and his men) were butchering people and we felt that it was our duty to save these people from being butchered..... "It was a rational intervention. Even if we have not intervened to prevent people from being butchered, the situation in Libya would have been same. The mandate by UNSC was to protect people threatened by Gaddafi," the French Ambassador said.