‘Bilateral roadmap is to open areas of cooperation, not to enumerate contracts’: Sources on Rafale deal missing in India-France joint statement

By Ayushi Agarwal
New Delhi [India], July 18 : The proposed deal to acquire 26 Rafale Marine jets from France was not included in the joint statement released after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris as  “contracts are not put out before they are finalised” and “negotiations are going to take place,” sources said.
As per sources, India has indicated its willingness to acquire the Rafale jets for its Navy for which the “negotiations are going to take place” and the two countries have evolved a roadmap for the next 25 years.
The two countries released ‘Horizon 2047: 25th Anniversary of the India-France Strategic Partnership, Towards A Century of India-France Relations’ during PM Modi’s visit last week.
The two countries are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the India-France Strategic Partnership.
Sources said the idea of the roadmap is to open more areas of cooperation and not to enumerate contracts.
The ‘Horizon 2047’ or the separate joint communique, had no mention of Rafale jets for the Indian Navy. On Scorpene submarines, sources said that that the deal is still not concluded but both sides (India and France) do not expect any difficulty and that aspects such as price, date of delivery need to be finalised.
A day before French President Modi and Macron met in Paris, the Defence Ministry gave acceptance of necessity for 26 Rafale Marine fighter jets.
It was mentioned that price and other terms of purchase for the Rafale M aircraft would be negotiated with the French Government after taking into account all relevant aspects, including comparative procurement price of similar aircraft by other countries.
Responding to media queries, India’s Foreign Secretary Vinay Kumar Kwatra  had said that  the 2047 Horizon document looks at security and sovereignty in a holistic manner.
 “If you look at the 2047 Horizon document, the document looks at security and sovereignty in a more holistic and a comprehensive manner rather than as a set of individual transactions. The reason for that is because the metrics of defence partnership is not defined by a single acquisition or a non-acquisition, single procurement, or a single transaction. The nature of the India-France Strategic Partnership, I should say, looks at all elements of our engagement”, he had said.
Apart from Defence, India and France are making strides in the field of nuclear energy including the collaboration on the Jaitapur power plant project that aims to provide reliable, affordable, and low-carbon energy through the construction of six cutting-edge European Pressurized Reactors (EPRs) in Jaitapur.
“Discussions have been going on because there are different sets of issues that need to be settled that include technical adaptation, civil liability, financing. Leaders took stock of progress on all these issues,” a source said.
“Civilian nuclear energy was discussed between the two leaders in Paris. It's the best solution for baseload if a country wants to decarbonise the economy and be carbon neutral. Today, in France, almost 70- 80 percent of electricity comes from nuclear energy,” the source added.
The joint statement last week emphasized the commitment of two countries to the success of the Jaitapur EPR project and acknowledged the significant progress achieved thus far. Both countries plan to intensify their collaboration in the upcoming months to further advance this initiative, sources said.
Sources said that Russia-Ukraine war and China in the context of Indo-Pacific also figured in the discussions between the two leaders.
“Russia-Ukraine war was part of the discussion between the two leaders. PM Modi has stated his position that this is not an era of war. He said that repeatedly,” a source said.
India’s initiatives during its G20 presidency also figured in the discussions.
Sources said France is also in support of India’s proposal for inclusion of African Union in  G20.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had written to his counterparts among the Group of 20 (G20) members, calling for the African Union to be given full membership of the grouping at its September summit in New Delhi, the sources said.