Ministry of Defence refuses Rafale guarantee

New Delhi: With the election process already underway, the Centre has refused to sign a government-to- government agreement with France ahead of the envisaged completion of the negotiation process with French company Dassault for acquisition of 126 Rafale Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA).

According to sources the defence minister A.K. Antony was of the view that it would not be proper on the part of the current government to sign such an agreement especially since the negotiation process with Dassault is still on and also when the election process is underway.

Sources said that France had earlier raised the matter with India and was keen that such an agreement be signed. The French are believed to be anxious about the prolonged negotiation process and could have sought some sort of guarantee from India that the estimated US$ 18 billion MMRCA mega-deal would eventually be inked.

Defence sources said a decision on the proposed deal would be taken by the next government at the Centre which is expected to be in place in the later half of May.

The MoD is still negotiating the price and terms and conditions of the contract with Dassault Aviation, whose Rafale combat aircraft was selected as the lowest bidder two years ago for supplying 126 warplanes.

Mr Antony had recently ordered that the process to arrive at the lowest bidder in the multi-vendor tender be reviewed after completion of the whole procedure as questions had been raised over it. The two sides are trying to tackle the issue of life cycle costs of the combat aircraft.

“There are complaints about the procedure of calculating the life cycle cost and that issue is not yet settled. Before bringing the deal to the Cabinet committee on security for final approval, we would like to get clear on that aspect,” Mr Antony had said.