French defence minister Florence Parly will make an official visit to India on Thursday to attend the induction ceremony of the first batch of Rafale combat jets at Indian Air Force’s airbase in Ambala.
This will be Parly’s third official visit to India since 2017, and one of her first trips abroad since the outbreak of the Covid-19. The French minister’s delegation will include top executives from Dassault Aviation, Thales Group, Safran and MBDA, representing the French defence majors that have partnered with Indian companies as part of the Rafale agreement.
Parly’s visit is aimed at strengthening France’s “forward-looking defence cooperation with India, its foremost Asian strategic partner,” according to a statement issued by the French embassy on Wednesday.
She will meet her Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.
“Their broad-ranging talks will cover industrial and technological partnership in line with the Make in India programme, operational defence cooperation, particularly maritime security in the Indo-Pacific, modalities of continuing the armed forces’ joint exercises in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, counter-terrorism cooperation, as well as major regional and international strategic issues,” the statement said.
France has emerged as one of India’s closest partners in the fields of defence and security. France had recently provided India 120 ventilators and 50,000 test kits to counter the pandemic. It also announced that it will provide financial aid of up to 200 million euros to support vulnerable sections of society affected by the pandemic.
What you need to know about the jet
Five Rafale fighter aircrafts, which arrived in India on July 29, are part of the 17 Golden Arrows squadron of the Air Force. Out of the five, three are single-seaters and two are twin-seaters.
The Rafales are expected to give an edge to the IAF in the South Asian skies due to its long-range hit capabilities.
India has contracted 36 Rafales from French firm Dassault Aviation under the largest-ever defence deal signed by the country worth over ₹60,000 crore. The deal was signed in September 2016 with Manohar Parrikar as the Defence Minister and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
When Rajnath Singh became Defence Minister, he went to France to accept the first Rafale for India in October 2019 on Dussehra and also flew in the aircraft which was accepted after performing ‘pooja’ with traditional Hindu rituals.
