British Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon poses for a photograph with a battlefield guide publication during a World War I commemoration event in New Delhi yesterday. British dignitaries and descendants of soldiers yesterday commemorated India’s largely forgotten World War I heroes at a ceremony marking the centenary of the battles fought for their British colonial ruler.
AFP/New Delhi
British defence minister Michael Fallon said yesterday he had raised a $12bn fighter jet deal being negotiated by French company Dassault during talks with his Indian counterpart.
Fallon said he had spoken to Defence Minister Arun Jaitley about the contract in the hope of still landing the giant deal currently being considered by the new government.
British-backed Eurofighter lost out to the French-made Rafale plane for exclusive negotiations in 2012 to supply 126 fighters.
The French lodged a lower bid than its rival Eurofighter for a tender with an estimated value of $12bn.
But the negotiations have since been delayed, and have only now been taken up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government which stormed to power in May.
“So far as Typhoon Eurofighters are concerned we respect the position the Indian government has adopted,” Fallon said at an event in New Delhi.
“Eurofighter has made it very clear that should the negotiations not progress with the French then we are ready to get into negotiations with the Indian government,” he said. Fallon added that Britain was “ideally placed to contribute significantly” to India’s defence sector.
India, the world’s biggest arms importer, is in the midst of a $100bn defence upgrade programme and last week cleared projects worth $13.1bn.
Modi has said India must build up its military might to the point that no other country “dare cast an evil eye” on the nation.
A series of corruption scandals under the previous government had brought defence procurement to a near standstill.
Fallon is in Delhi to meet top government ministers as well as commemorate India’s fallen soldiers in World War I, as countries mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the conflict.
“I thought it was important for me to be here to mark the memory of all those who served and many of those who died in that great cause a hundred years ago,” he said, after laying a wreath at Delhi’s India Gate memorial.
