Abingdonboy
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Indian Air Force's single largest contract for 126 fighters is yet to be signed. The French embassy has said that they are hopeful that the contract to buy the French Rafale aircraft will be signed by the end of this year. French company Dassault Aviation was chosen to supply the 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) for the IAF for a deal worth approximately $18 billion. Rafale was declared the winner of a five-year long contest on 31 January 2012.
Presently the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Dassault Aviation are engaged in the final negotiations of the deal. When this newspaper contacted Dassault Aviation, there was no response on the matter.
The French embassy told this newspaper, "Indian authorities and Dassault are currently negotiating and finalising all aspects of the Rafale contract in detail: technical definitions, terms and conditions, transfers of technologies and offsets. This discussion, which is complex by nature, is still going on. The final contract will comprise thousands of pages and everything has to be perfectly clear and defined before it is signed."
India is attempting offsets worth 50% of the deal, for the first time, which in itself is a complex procedure. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will build 108 out of the 126 planes with Dassault assistance, while 18 will be bought off-the-shelf.
France saw a change of guard last month when François Hollande took over as the new French President from Nicolas Sarkozy, about which the French embassy in India has said that the change of government in France will have no influence on the nature of Indo-French strategic relations and French commitment towards India. Being technical and non-political, the Rafale deal will not be influenced by the democratic changeover in France, the embassy added.
Former IAF chief S. Krishnaswamy told this newspaper, "There must be good reason for it to be delayed. There's no need to rush, as the deal is big and complex and little delays don't matter."
Defence Minister A.K Antony had ordered an inquiry into the entire deal after a Telugu Desam Party Rajya Sabha member wrote to Antony questioning the selection. Reddy had asked how Rafale became the lowest bidder and questioned its capabilities based on its performance in Libya, and also pointed out the fact that no country so far had bought it.
France hopes to close MMRCA deal by yearend
