New Delhi: India's much negotiated deal with France for 36
fighter jets is final as India will buy the French-made Rafale planes for Rs
60,00 crore $8.8 billion. The agreement is to be signed within three weeks and
it will take at least 18 months for India to get the first lot of aircraft.
The development
came nearly four months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President
Francois Hollande signed a memorandum of agreement (MoU) to purchase 36 Rafale
combat jets. The Indian side has been negotiating hard to bring down the price
of the Rafale deal.
The Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) and the actual
multi-billion dollar contract could not be inked during President Francois
Hollande's visit to India as the chief guest for the January 26 Republic Day
parade due to the persisting differences between the two countries.
The ongoing negotiations were reminiscent of the
deadlocked price negotiations for the original MMRCA project after Rafale was
selected over five contenders — including the Eurofighter Typhoon and the
American F/A-18 and F-16 — in January 2012. Under the MMRCA project, the first
18 fighters were to be imported from France with the remaining 108 being made
by defense PSU Hindustan Aeronautics after transfer of technology.
The Rafales are made by
manufacturer Dassault Aviation. During PM Modi's visit, the countries agreed
that the deal would be handled between their governments.
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