President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday vowed to “act jointly” in the Indo-Pacific region, the French presidency said, as a row with Australia and the US intensifies over an aborted French submarine contract. In telephone talks, both leaders said they would “act jointly in an open and inclusive Indo-Pacific area”, just under a week after Australia pulled out of a submarine contract with France, opting instead for US submarines as part of a Pacific alliance with Washington and the UK.