PARIS
India has requested France to supply 36 Rafale fighter jets as soon as possible, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday.
Addressing a joint press conference with his French counterpart Francois Hollande in Paris, Modi, who is on a three-day visit to France, said: "I have requested 36 Rafale jets in fly-away condition as quickly as possible."
There are still many aspects of the deal that remain to be worked out. According to some reports, the price of the deal was now estimated at $20 billion and it was unlikely that India would spend that amount on a single deal from its $40 billion military budget for 2015-16.
India has reportedly asked French aviation company, Dassault Aviation, to stick to the original price of $12 billion for 126 Rafale aircraft. As part of the deal, India was to import 18 planes from France and manufacture the remaining 108 jets at the Hindustan Aeronatics Limited in the Indian city of Bengaluru.
Modi acknowledged that the terms of the contract were yet to be finalized. "We want the terms and conditions to be negotiated on this issue, and our civil servants are going to debate these aspects in depth and press ahead with the negotiations," he said.
Hollande said that he was "deeply moved" by the announcement and said the deal had taken bilateral ties between the two countries "into a new gear."
Also, India and France signed a total of 17 agreements in economy, trade, nuclear energy, defense, tourism, education, science and technology, sports and health, culture and space.
The French premier said that France supported India’s bid to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
Earlier, Hollande had announced that France would invest €2 billion in India and help in the development of three smart Indian cities, including Pondicherry and Nagpur.
He also added that his country would partner with India in its urban infrastructure development projects, including railways, defense and nuclear sectors.
After his France trip, Modi will travel next to Germany and Canada in a bid to attract foreign investors for his "Make in India" campaign to promote India as a manufacturing hub.
India shares historic bilateral relations with France, a country which stood by India when the country conducted nuclear tests in 1998.
India’s defense cooperation with France also includes construction of six advanced submarines in India. Both countries also have a civil nuclear energy cooperation agreement.
