Defence minister of India visits Rafale manufacturing facility in France

PARIS: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday visited a production facility of French aerospace major Dassault Aviation near Paris where the Rafale jets to be supplied to India are being manufactured, official sources said.nnThey said during her visit to the plant in Argenteuil, Sitharaman spoke to officials of the Dassault Aviation, the makers of Rafale, and took stock of progress in production of the fighter jets whose delivery to India will begin in September next year.nnSitharaman arrived in Paris Thursday on a three-day visit in the midst of a massive controversy over the procurement of 36 Rafale jets under a Rs 58,000 crore government-to-government deal between India and France.nnLast evening, Sitharaman held wide-ranging talks with her French counterpart Florence Parly on ways to deepen the strategic and defence cooperation between the two countries.nnThe talks were held under the framework of the annual Indo-French defence ministerial dialogue which was agreed to during the summit meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron in March.nnOfficial sources said the two defence ministers held a one-on-one meeting followed by delegation-level talks, covering a range of bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interests.nnThey said both the sides deliberated on co-production of military platforms and weapons by the two countries besides expanding cooperation between their armed forces, particularly in the maritime domain.nnIt was not immediately known whether the Rafale deal figured in the talks.nnSitharaman’s visit to France came in the backdrop of a fierce political backlash between the ruling BJP and Congress over the procurement of the jets.nnIn a report Wednesday, French publication Mediapart said Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of Rafale, had to choose Ambani’s firm Reliance Defence as its offsets partner in India as a trade-off for getting the deal.nnWhen asked about the allegations, Sitharaman said that offset obligations for the deal are mandatory but not the names of the companies.nnIn a statement, Dassault Aviation said it has “freely chosen to make a partnership with Reliance Group, as it rejected the report by French publication Mediapart”.nnThe latest report followed former French president Francois Hollande’s comments last month that France was given “no choice” on selection of the Indian partner for Dassault and the Indian government proposed the name of the Indian company. Hollande was the French president when the Rafale deal was sealed.nnThe Congress has been alleging massive irregularities in the deal, saying the government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA government when it was negotiating the deal.nnThe Congress has also been targeting the government over selection of Reliance Defence as an offset partner for Dassault.nnThe government has vehemently rejected the allegations and asserted that it did not have any role in the selection of Reliance Defence.