Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Automakers Renault and Nissan on Monday formalized their reboot of a relationship that had grown rocky, culminating in the spectacular fall of top executive Carlos Ghosn, who had led successful turnarounds at both companies before his arrest and daring escape.
The boards of both companies approved equalizing the stake each automaker holds in the other to 15%, bringing a better balance in the French-Japanese alliance, which also includes smaller Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. The uneven shareholdings had been viewed at times as a source of conflict.
Until now, Renault Group of France owned 43.4% of Nissan Motor Co., while the Japanese automaker owned 15% of Renault.
"We have been waiting a long time for this moment," Renault board Chairman Jean Dominique Senard said at a news conference in London, calling it a "new era."
Nissan intends to invest up to 15% in Ampere, Renault's electric vehicle and software entity in Europe that Mitsubishi also will consider investing in. The automakers said they will collaborate in markets worldwide, including Latin America, Europe and India.
The moves come at a time when the extremely competitive auto industry is undergoing a major shift toward electric vehicles and other environmentally friendly models.
The long speculated changes to the carmaker alliance were announced a week ago. Shares equivalent to a 28.4% stake will be transferred to a French trust, according to the companies.
Renault, whose top shareholder is the French government, and Nissan agreed on an orderly sale of that stake, although there will be no deadline.
Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida vowed to take the alliance to "the next level of transformation" to adapt to a new era.
"This is not a choice but a need," he said.
In theory, partnerships are a good way for automakers to cut costs by sharing parts, production and technology, especially when the industry is going through such dramatic change with EVs.
That also means that, once formed, ending an alliance can be difficult because the companies' development, manufacturing and products get so closely tied together.
Still, partnerships can stumble because of the different corporate cultures of the automakers, especially when it involves a meeting of the West and East.
The Renault-Nissan alliance, which started in 1999, was plunged into scandal when Ghosn, the executive sent by Renault to lead a turnaround at the then-near-bankrupt Nissan, was arrested in Japan in 2018 on financial misconduct charges.
Ghosn, who says he is innocent, jumped bail in a daring escape by hiding in a box spirited aboard a private jet and now lives in Lebanon, which has no extradition treaty with Japan. Renault and Nissan have been distancing themselves from the Ghosn scandal.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Senard emphasized that Renault is decidedly in the post-Ghosn era.
"That is in the past. I mean, nobody in Renault today is talking about that subject," he said, without mentioning Ghosn's name. "They're all concentrated, honestly, on the future, on what we're doing."
With its Ampere project, Renault is scrambling to beef up its electric car lineup like other automakers, adding to an increasingly competitive field long dominated by Tesla. Senard said he's confident about the French automaker's chances.
"You look at the new cars that are coming out from the Renault plants today. They're just beautiful," he said. "I mean, they have nothing to be jealous about when they look at Tesla and these other guys."
The Renault chairman acknowledged that Chinese electric car brands exporting to Europe have a "strong cost advantage" but that gives the French automaker extra incentive to compete.
"It's a bet, but as you understand, we have decided to win that bet," he said.
Executives at the news conference, including Renault CEO Luca de Meo, stressed that collaborations, cost cuts, model offerings and sales will grow, noting the companies' relationship will look toward the future and become "normal."
Senard appeared to acknowledge the bumps along the way when he noted hopes that past misunderstandings will be fixed.
"These frustrations are behind us," he told reporters.
Renault left the Russian market last year after the invasion of Ukraine, selling its majority stake in Avtovaz, a Russian car company best known for its Lada brand, and its Moscow factory for a symbolic single ruble.
Senard told the AP that the door is still open for the company to return.
"If one day we thought it made sense to come back in Russia in one form or another, that means that many things would have changed. If that happens, why not?" he said.
------
Kageyama reported from Tokyo
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.