Rafale aircraft: France calls for expediting deal and hopes for a positive outcome from India

In his first visit to reach out to the Narendra Modi government, French Foreign Minister Mr Laurent Fabius Monday pressed for sealing the multi-billion dollar Rafale combat aircraft deal during his meetings with Defence Minister Mr Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Mrs Sushma Swaraj. France hopes that with the new government, whose focus was on efficiency, the implementation of the decision will be swift and expressed confidence of a “positive outcome” to the on-going negotiations in the deal, Mr Fabius said. He said Rafale meets all requirements of India, including cutting-edge technology and highest quality. Mr Fabius announced France’s decision to have a new visa regime for Indian travellers from January 2015 under which they will get visa in 48 hours. This is aimed at increasing human exchange, the minister said. On civil nuclear cooperation, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Mr Syed Akbaruddin said, “Civil nuclear cooperation is a pillar of our bilateral strategic partnership and this was discussed. Both sides reiterated their commitment to proceeding with the Jaitapur nuke plant.”

Source:  Indian Express | New Delhi


Leave Your Comment

Your email will not be published or shared. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>