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India and France are likely to announce the $8-billion Rafale fighter jet deal on Friday. Under the deal, the government will buy 36 warplanes for the Indian Air Force that is in dire need of a modern fleet.
According to sources, the procurement contract was finalised during a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and attended by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
The announcement will be made during the visit of French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drain, who is arriving for a three-day visit to India on Thursday. It will be officially announced on Friday, sources told BusinessLine.
This follows a week-long intense negotiation between the Ministry of Defence and French officials who were mandated to giving “final touches” to the Inter-Governmental Agreement in terms of the offset arrangement, service and maintenance.
“In a few days if the Rafale gets finalised it would be crossing, may be, 2.25 lakh in terms of orders in last two years … Offset contract which we are working out with a company like Dassault for Rafale has 74 per cent component of import from India. ,” Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Wednesday.
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