NEW DELHI, 29 April 2003 — French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie yesterday pledged stronger military ties with India at the end of talks here with Indian leaders focused on the supply of submarines and fighter jets.
The situation in postwar Iraq, the need for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and the issue of Kashmir, where rebels have been waging an anti-Indian rebellion since 1989, were also discussed, Alliot-Marie told a media conference.
But India skirted the thorny subject of French military assistance to rival Pakistan during the minister’s talks with Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani and her Indian counterpart George Fernandes.
“This topic was not touched and the talks were on intensification of our relationship,” Alliot-Marie said in reply to a question whether India pressured France about its sale of Augusta submarines to rival Pakistan.
The French defense minister told reporters: “Our long-term defense ties are going to get deeper because we have similar vision that there should be international democracy in the world.”
“But a country will be heard only if it has credible defense and so Indian and French ties are very, very important,” she said.
Alliot-Marie said the possible sale to India of six French-designed Scorpene submarines as well as Mirage fighter planes also came up in the talks.
“There is a project for the supply of two or more submarines and it is for India to tell us how many they want but we are at a point where an agreement could be reached by the end of the year,” she said.
According to Indian sources, the two-billion-euro ($2.1 billion) project involves the construction of six Scorpene submarines and a partial transfer of technology.
According to analysts here, the diesel-propelled Scorpenes, each weighing about 1,600 tonnes when in water, could be built over 15 years at Mazagon Docks in western India.
If the deal is signed in 2003, the first Indian-built Scorpene will be ready in 2010 and the sixth in 2016. However India is pressing Paris to stop the sales of French weapons to Pakistan before clinching the Scorpene deal.
New Delhi is also planning to buy around 130 fighter jets, and French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation is pursuing talks with India on selling a number of its Mirage 2000s 2000-5 warplanes.
Other rivals in the race are Lockheed Martin of the United States, which is offering its F-16 fighting Falcons, and Russia with its upgraded MiG-29 and Sukhoi-30MKI warplanes.
Alliot-Marie said France was willing to allow India to build Mirage jets under license if it clinched a deal, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“We mentioned the possibilities of aircraft and we have a proposal which is under study in India. We are offering technology transfer and local manufacture (of Mirage jets).
“But I did not come to sign deals but to develop partnerships and relations in India,” she said.
“The armament partnership between India and France has existed for many years now and there are a number of prospects ... our relationship is not just commercial but is bound by a framework of trust as there are guarantees that our contracts will be honored,” she said, adding that France also offered glitch-free after-sales spares supply.
“The contracts are the starting point of transfer of technology and this is true partnership,” the defense minister said.
Speculations are being raised about India’s military plans owing to Alliot-Marie’s visit coming close on the heels of Fernandes’ China trip which was devoted to encouraging military-to-military cooperation between New Delhi and Beijing.
The high level military and security dialogue between the French minister and Fernandes confirm the new importance being assumed by Indo-French ties.
