<p>A meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron in March may lead to signing of an agreement for procuring 26 Rafale M jets from the Dassault Aviation for India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.</p>.<p>Macron’s diplomatic advisor Emmanual Bonne was in New Delhi on Thursday, apparently to set the stage for the visit of the French President. He called on Modi, apart from meeting External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and co-chairing the 36th India-France strategic dialogue with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.</p>.<p>Modi fondly recalled his recent meeting with Macron during the 17th G20 summit at Bali. He conveyed his invitation to Macron to visit India. Bonne conveyed to Modi that Macron was looking forward to an early visit to India, according to a release by the Prime Minster’s Office.</p>.<p>Bonne’s meetings with Jaishankar and Doval saw India and France reiterating commitment to take forward strategic partnership to ensure peace, stability and security in the Indo-Pacific based on common beliefs in rules-based international order and strategic autonomy.</p>.<p>The two sides discussed global security environment, expanding the scope of defence cooperation to include co-development of futuristic technologies in line with the Modi government’s priorities of “Make in India” and “Atmanirbhar Bharat”, Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said.</p>.<p>A source told <em>DH</em> that an agreement between India and France for procuring 26 Rafale M fighter jets from the Dassault Aviation for the INS Vikrant could be one of the deliverables of Macron's visit to India.</p>.<p>The INS Vikrant is the first indigenous aircraft carrier of India. It was built by the Cochin Shipyard Limited and commissioned into service by the prime minister on September 2 last year. The source said that the Indian Navy might choose the Rafale M fighter jets over the American F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft to equip the carrier.</p>.<p>India has already procured 36 Rafale fighter jets for the Indian Air Force (IAF) from Dassault Aviation at a cost of nearly Rs 60,000 crore in accordance with an agreement inked between the two governments in 2016.</p>.<p>But New Delhi's government-to-government deal with Paris to procure the jets “off the shelf” had turned into a major political controversy in India, with the Modi government being accused by the opposition Congress of nudging the Dassault Aviation to choose Reliance Defence as its offset partner, brushing aside the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. The Supreme Court, however, in December 2018 concluded that no irregularities were found in the deal. It also dismissed review petitions in November 2019.</p>.<p>The Embassy of France in New Delhi stated that the agenda of Bonne’s meetings with Jaishankar and Doval had covered all aspects of the Indo-French strategic partnership, including defence and security cooperation, major international and regional issues, including the war in Ukraine and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, counter-terrorism cooperation, cyber-security, space, civil nuclear energy. “On each topic, the two sides agreed to raise the level of ambition of our cooperation even further with the goal of accelerating efforts towards strategic autonomy,” it added.</p>
<p>A meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron in March may lead to signing of an agreement for procuring 26 Rafale M jets from the Dassault Aviation for India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.</p>.<p>Macron’s diplomatic advisor Emmanual Bonne was in New Delhi on Thursday, apparently to set the stage for the visit of the French President. He called on Modi, apart from meeting External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and co-chairing the 36th India-France strategic dialogue with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.</p>.<p>Modi fondly recalled his recent meeting with Macron during the 17th G20 summit at Bali. He conveyed his invitation to Macron to visit India. Bonne conveyed to Modi that Macron was looking forward to an early visit to India, according to a release by the Prime Minster’s Office.</p>.<p>Bonne’s meetings with Jaishankar and Doval saw India and France reiterating commitment to take forward strategic partnership to ensure peace, stability and security in the Indo-Pacific based on common beliefs in rules-based international order and strategic autonomy.</p>.<p>The two sides discussed global security environment, expanding the scope of defence cooperation to include co-development of futuristic technologies in line with the Modi government’s priorities of “Make in India” and “Atmanirbhar Bharat”, Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said.</p>.<p>A source told <em>DH</em> that an agreement between India and France for procuring 26 Rafale M fighter jets from the Dassault Aviation for the INS Vikrant could be one of the deliverables of Macron's visit to India.</p>.<p>The INS Vikrant is the first indigenous aircraft carrier of India. It was built by the Cochin Shipyard Limited and commissioned into service by the prime minister on September 2 last year. The source said that the Indian Navy might choose the Rafale M fighter jets over the American F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft to equip the carrier.</p>.<p>India has already procured 36 Rafale fighter jets for the Indian Air Force (IAF) from Dassault Aviation at a cost of nearly Rs 60,000 crore in accordance with an agreement inked between the two governments in 2016.</p>.<p>But New Delhi's government-to-government deal with Paris to procure the jets “off the shelf” had turned into a major political controversy in India, with the Modi government being accused by the opposition Congress of nudging the Dassault Aviation to choose Reliance Defence as its offset partner, brushing aside the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. The Supreme Court, however, in December 2018 concluded that no irregularities were found in the deal. It also dismissed review petitions in November 2019.</p>.<p>The Embassy of France in New Delhi stated that the agenda of Bonne’s meetings with Jaishankar and Doval had covered all aspects of the Indo-French strategic partnership, including defence and security cooperation, major international and regional issues, including the war in Ukraine and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, counter-terrorism cooperation, cyber-security, space, civil nuclear energy. “On each topic, the two sides agreed to raise the level of ambition of our cooperation even further with the goal of accelerating efforts towards strategic autonomy,” it added.</p>
