India and France are holding negotiations for the price and other important issues for the 26 Rafale Marine fighter aircraft deal for the Indian Navy. The talks, that were earlier supposed to be held on May 30 but were postponed to the second week of June apparently in view of the Lok Sabha elections in the country, are being held as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on his first away visit in his third term to Italy to attend the G7 Summit. He held a bilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Apulia on the sidelines of the Summit.
"The French delegation is in New Delhi, including officials from their Directorate General of Armament which is looking after the sale of the Rafale jets to India," defence sources told news agency ANI.
Total worth of the deal
The Indian side in the government-to-government talks is represented by the officials from the Directorate General of Acquisition under the Ministry of Defence and other military officers from the user side, they said.
According to sources, the overall project is likely to be worth over Rs 50,000 crore and would help boost the number of these advanced aircraft in the Indian inventory to 62 with the existing 36 already in the Air Force fleet.
The aircraft would be made operational from the aircraft carriers of the Indian Navy, which includes the INS Vikramaditya and the INS Vikrant.
According to the plans, the Indian Navy is all set to deploy these aircraft at the INS Degha in Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh as their home base.
France had submitted its response to India's tender for buying 26 Rafale Marine jets for the Indian Navy's aircraft carriers - INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya in December last year. The response to India's Letter of Acceptance had been submitted by France in New Delhi.
The Indian side is carrying out negotiations with French government officials, as it is a government-to-government contract and India is attempting to get a better deal.
(With ANI inputs)
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