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Negotiations to acquire 36 Rafale fighter jets from France for the Indian Air Force have still not been concluded even as a High Committee on Defence Cooperation (HCDC) is looking into the matter.
“A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Indian and French Government has also been signed on January 25, 2016, in this regard. Negotiations with the French side are currently on,” Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told the Rajya Sabha Tuesday.
The MoU, which was signed during the visit of French President François Nicolas Hollande, was finalised when Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his trip to France in 2015.
Since then the talks have been mainly stuck on the issue of pricing as India had demanded certain changes in the design.
A High Committee on Defence Cooperation (HCDC) last discussed the Rafale deal when it met in Paris on January 12.
According to Parrikar, the committee had also discussed the purchase of these multirole combat aircraft manufactured by Dassault Aviation, a French defence giant, in fly-away condition.
Apart from this, the committee had also discussed the MoU signed between both governments on Defence equipment supplies.
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