NEW DELHI: India's Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday that talks to buy fighter jets from France's Dassault Aviation in a 2012 deal worth $12 billion are still underway but are complex.
India chose Dassault for "exclusive negotiations" for 126 Rafale jets, but successive deadlines to complete one of the world's biggest airline contracts have slipped by.
"Given the complexity of the procurement case, the process of negotiations with Dassault Aviation on various aspects of the commercial proposal and provisions of draft contract is on," Jaitley told parliament late Tuesday.
The cost of the deal was pegged at $12 billion but media reports have recently put it at around $15 billion.
Jaitley, named defence minister when the new right-wing government took power in May, was replying to a question in parliament about progress on the purchase.
India is in the midst of a $100-billion defence upgrade programme.
Military experts say India urgently needs the twin-engine multi-role fighters to maintain a combat edge against nuclear rival Pakistan, with which it has fought three wars. Indian military and armour is larger than Pakistan’s.
The Rafale, which would replace India's Russian-made fleet of MiG-21 and MiG-27 planes, beat out bids from rivals such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Jaitley told parliament that the United States has overtaken Russia as the largest arms supplier to India in the last three years, followed by France and Israel.
The new government has raised the foreign investment cap on India's defence industries to speed up modernisation of the military.
The production-sharing deal agreed by the previous Congress government would see Dassault supply 18 Rafales by 2015 in a "ready to fly" state.
The remaining 108 would be made by state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd under technology transfer agreements with India, which is keen to boost homemade defence manufacturing.
In a boost for Dassault, the government last month said the deal complied fully with technology transfer requirements spelled out in the plane tender offer.
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Lol @ real democracy. All Democratic countries are corrupt and influenced by the world elites, corporations and central bankers..especially the USA, who thinks they are the most democratic.
@Reddy Actually in a democracy (rule of the people) the government's job is to do whatever is in the people's interest, this includes feeding those who have no food. Both India and Pakistan need to become real democracies.
Its not govt's job to feed people. People who have been addicted welfare schemes think along those lines. Govt's job is provide a secure and lawful society so that people can earn their living. And last time I checked Pakistanis are not doing any better than us or else why would you come to my country for jobs, medical care etc??
@Taimur khan: According to you, should a country wait till every social, financial, biological, medical psychological issues is solved before buying defense equipment. Agreed India is still a very poor country but with such friendly neighbors who is taking chances.
Banana: you must be reading Tom Clancy again.....or maybe the plot to another intellectually stimulating bollywood movie?
@Taimur: Nah. Since India has a failing state as a neighbor whose nuclear arsenal is in danger of being taken over by militants and whose armed forces' middle level and junior level officers are radicals who might embark on some adventurous missions against India, even though their own country has multitudes of problems, India unfortunately has to invest in such expensive stuff.
@Dr Dang: Indian Nuclear submarine that you mentioned has NOT come from France. INS Arihant is India's fully indigenous nuclear submarine and France has nothing to do with this project at all.
Dassault Rafale F1 is one of the most advanced fighter jet out there- capable of simultaneously performing air supremacy, interdiction, reconnaissance, and airborne nuclear deterrent missions. After nuclear submarines this is India's other defense 'equipment' coming from France. Also technology transfer means this is one time investment. After US, Russia & Israel - makes sense to procure from different suppliers instead of one.The Americans aren't very reliable.