NEW DELHI — India and France did not sign any type of agreement for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force during the Wednesday visit of French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian here.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, (cq) during a visit to France, announced April 10 an offer to buy 36 Rafale fighters on a government-to- government basis and analysts were expecting an agreement to be signed on the purchase during Le Drian's visit. of Drian
An The press release of the Indian Defence Ministry statement of Defense (MoD) here says, "Joint Statement issued during Prime Minister's visit to France, inter-alia, included acquisition of 36 Rafale jets in fly away condition, through an Inter-Governmental Agreement. To follow-up on the subject, Le Drian, the Defense Minister of France and Manohar Parrikar, (cq) , the Defense Minister of India, met today at New Delhi to decide on the way forward in this regard."
On what happens next, the release says, "The two Defense Ministers discussed modalities in order to reach an early conclusion of an Inter-Governmental Agreement on the subject. The two sides decided to set up teams to work out the details in a time bound manner."
The fate of the 2007 request for proposals (RFP), which had a provision to buy 18 Rafales directly and another 108 made Make in India, Rafale is still not known.
No MoD official would comment whether there would be Indian-made Rafales would be made or whether the RFP would be canceled.
"The ambiguity over the India-made Rafale persists but the Indian Air Force will have to decide early how to acquire the additional fighters to shore up the dwindling fighter aircraft strength. We were expecting some clarity on the India-made Rafale," says Bhim Singh, (cq) retired Indian Air Force Wing commander.
Email: vraghuvanshi@defensenews.com
Vivek Raghuvanshi is the India correspondent for Defense News.
