India, France to discuss defence technology

Posted on December 17, 2007 0 Comments34


The French are here and the Americans are coming. Starting Monday, India and France will discuss joint development of defence technologies and co-producing defence equipment, among other things, at a high level meeting. France is keen on regaining its place as a prominent arms supplier to India.


Keen to sell armaments to India and push defence relations between the two countries, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates will be in New Delhi early next year. “The dates are not yet finalised but he (Gates) will be here in the early part of 2008,” a senior US official, visiting India as a precursor to Gates’s visit, said.


Though the Indo-French meeting is annual affair, it comes days after India scrapped a $600 million Eurocopter deal on the brink of finalising it. France and Germany, both part of the consortium selling the choppers, had protested the Indian government’s move. Sources say, France was the second major arms-seller to India (after Russia) but has recently been displaced by Israel. A US based company was the other bidder for the chopper deal that got scrapped.


“Defence related activities such as joint exercises, high-level visits, transfer of technology and activities relating to co-development and co-production will be discussed at the 10th Meeting of the Indo-French High Committee on Defence Cooperation to be held here on December 17-18, 2007,” a Defence ministry official said.


 

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