Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, talks as he greets French President Francois Hollande in New Delhi, India, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016.
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Recognising the urgent need to disrupt terrorist networks and their financing channels, eliminate terrorist safe havens, training infrastructure and cross-border movement of terrorists, Modi and Hollande urged all countries to effectively deal with terrorism emanating from their territory or territories under their control. “It is this inter-governmental agreement that will allow a commercial transaction”, he said.
The two leaders also discussed ways to increase security and intelligence cooperation.
Under the deal, India would purchase 36 Rafale medium multi-role combat aircraft of French aerospace major Dassault, valued at around 8.8 billion US dollars. “The Indian Prime Minister has made himself the champion of “Make in India” (Manufacturing in India) to attract investors and rebalance the fundamentals of an economy where services are carving the lion’s share (52 percent) compared to industry (30 percent),” said the report.
Hollande landed in the northern city of Chandigarh on Sunday where Modi joined him at official engagements and lauded France’s decision to invest $1bn every year in India in various sectors.
After signing an extension to the initial agreement with Mahindra, Airbus India s managing director Pierre de Bausset told AFP that their joint venture was now on course to establish itself as “a sustainable robust helicopter manufacturer to serve the Indian military market”.
Hollande will be the guest of honor at India’s Republic Day celebrations on January 26.
India and France announced the signing 13 agreements on Monday, including food safety, smart governance, railways, nuclear energy, maritime cooperation and space technology. “To fight this, we have to unite”.
India and France today pledged to explore new avenues for cooperation to strengthen exchange of information to prevent off-shore tax evasion.
PM Modi & French Pres. are going to inaugurate interim Secretariat of International Solar Alliance (ISA) in Gurgaon.
The talks have been stuck over the price of the deal, according to Reuters news agency.
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Hollande probably promised Modi a better deal a year ago in part because of “the eagerness of French to sustain Rafale orders at that time”, said Anurag Garg, a director of defense at Strategy&, a consulting group of PwC.
