Modi-Macron meet: Tata and France's Airbus to manufacture helicopters together

New Delhi: India's Tata group and France's Airbus SE have signed an agreement to manufacture civilian helicopters together, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meetings with President Emmanuel Macron saw the two nations agreeing on a defence industrial cooperation roadmap for jointly designing, developing, testing and manufacturing advanced military technologies and platforms.

The two nations also inked a defence-space partnership, focussing on cooperation in monitoring hostile objects in space and protecting satellites of both nations from natural and man-made threats.

The New Space India Limited (NSIL) and the Arianespace of France also inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in launching satellites, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra told journalists in New Delhi on Friday.

The French president was the chief guest on the occasion of the Republic Day ceremony of India. He commenced his visit from Jaipur on Thursday. The prime minister joined him in a roadshow in the Pink City. The two leaders later had a restricted meeting over dinner, before leasing respective delegations at the formal talks.

Macron joined Modi and President Droupadi Murmu to watch the Republic Day parade on the Kartavya Path in New Delhi on Friday.

Airbus Helicopters chose the occasion to announce its new partnership with the Tata Group to establish a Final Assembly Line (FAL) for helicopters in India.

The FAL will produce Airbus’ best-selling H125 helicopter from its civil range for India and export to some of the neighbouring countries.

It will be the first instance of the private sector setting up a helicopter manufacturing facility in India, providing a major boost to the Government of India’s 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India) programme, according to a press release issued by Airbus SE. Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL), a subsidiary of Tata Group, will set up the facility along with Airbus Helicopters.

The H125 is a light civilian helicopter that can transport up to six people.

The new India-France defence industrial roadmap focuses on actually identifying opportunities for partnership prioritising co-designing, co-development, and co-production, Kwatra told journalists on Friday.

It also focuses on building the defence supply chains between the two countries, so that they can not only fulfil the defence needs of India and France but also can be a useful contributor to the security partnership with other countries who might be in use of similar products, added the foreign secretary.

Apart from air and space technologies, equipment and systems related to land warfare and cyber defence, the India-France defence industry roadmap will focus on maritime technology, including the ones used for underwater domain awareness, robotics and artificial intelligence, and autonomous vehicles and platforms.

The two nations, however, did not announce any breakthrough in the negotiation for the purchase of Rafale Marine fighter aircraft and for the construction of three more Scorpene- class submarines in India with the transfer of technology from France.

The two sides also did not announce any progress on the nuclear power plant proposed to be built by Electricite de France (EDF) at Jaitapur in Maharashtra. They however discussed partnership for co-developing the Small Modular Reactors and Advanced Modular Reactor technologies.

Modi and Macron also discussed the situation in the Red Sea and the "potential disruptions" that it could result in. They also exchanged views on the conflict in Gaza.