NewDelhi: Amid the political controversy over Rafale deal with France, the Dassault Aviation has announced that it will deliver the fighter jets to India from 2019 and may see new orders in coming months, reported news agency Reuters.
Dassault Aviation Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eric Trappier told this to Reuters ahead of the world`s largest business jet show in Orlando on Monday.
The announcement comes amid a huge political row over the deal with France, with the Congress party spearheading a campaign against what it terms as Rafale scam. Congress president Rahul Gandhi has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of benefitting Reliance Defence’s Anil Ambani with the deal.
The development comes shortly after Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s visit to France, where she visited a Rafale manufacturing facility near Paris to take stock of progress in their production of the 36 fighter jets.
Rahul Gandhi had also raised questions on the Defence Minister’s visit to France, alleging that a cover up was on and that the media was pressured into not reporting the same. He had said, “Why has suddenly Defence Minister rushed to France to Rafale’s plant? What is the emergency?”
Defence ministry released a statement saying, “Annual Defence Ministerial Dialogue between India and France was decided during the summit meeting in March 2018 between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron.”
In another related development, an investigative report by French news website Mediapart claimed that it was “imperative and obligatory” for Dassault Aviation to agree to work with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence in order to procure the contract to produce 36 Rafale jets for India.
The report quoted from a leaked company document of Dassault Aviation, where a senior company executive was quoted as saying the same.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the procurement of a batch of 36 Rafale jets after talks with the then French President Hollande on April 10, 2015 in Paris. The final deal was sealed on September 23, 2016.
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