thestringshredder
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2012
- Messages
- 1,254
- Reaction score
- 1
- Country
- Location
NEW DELHI: Army chief General Bikram Singh will be heading for Paris next week to further bolster the "already strong strategic partnership" with France, which is one of the biggest arms suppliers to India.
During his May 26-30 trip, Gen Singh will hold talks with French defence minister Jean Yves Le Drian, chief of general staff Admiral Edouard Guillaud and Army chief General Bertrand Ract-Madoux, apart from visiting defence establishments like the Land Forces Command in Lille.
"France, which did not impose sanctions after the 1998 Pokhran-II nuclear tests, and India already have a strategic dialogue at the national security advisor-level. Apart from being the first country to enter into a formal understanding with India after the Nuclear Suppliers' Group exempted us from its guidelines, it also supports our bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council as well as G-8," said an official.
The bilateral defence relations have also transformed from military cooperation to "comprehensive" defence collaboration. Apart from the navies and air forces of the two countries holding regular "Varuna" and "Garuda' series of combat exercises, the two armies have also begun to conduct the "Shakti" war games now.
Defence procurements and joint R&D projects constitute a critical element of the bilateral partnership. France already has two major defence projects underway with India, while it also negotiates to bag the almost $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project to supply 126 Rafale fighters to IAF.
One of the ongoing mega programmes is the construction six French Scorpene submarines at Mazagon Docks under the Rs 23,562 crore `Project-75' at Mumbai. The project, however, has been dogged with huge time and cost overruns. The Navy now hopes to get the desperately-required new submarines in the 2015-20 timeframe, over four years behind schedule.
The other is the one for the upgrade of the 51 French-origin Mirage-2000 fighters, which were first inducted in the IAF fleet in the mid-1980s. The overall upgrade programme of the Mirage-2000s is pegged at Rs 17,547 crore, with the first two fighters being upgraded in France and the rest 49 by Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) under transfer of technology (ToT). The upgrade programme has been dubbed "very exorbitant" by many critics but the IAF says Mirage-2000s will be "virtually new and potent" fighters after undergoing it.
Link - Army chief to visit France to boost ties - The Times of India
During his May 26-30 trip, Gen Singh will hold talks with French defence minister Jean Yves Le Drian, chief of general staff Admiral Edouard Guillaud and Army chief General Bertrand Ract-Madoux, apart from visiting defence establishments like the Land Forces Command in Lille.
"France, which did not impose sanctions after the 1998 Pokhran-II nuclear tests, and India already have a strategic dialogue at the national security advisor-level. Apart from being the first country to enter into a formal understanding with India after the Nuclear Suppliers' Group exempted us from its guidelines, it also supports our bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council as well as G-8," said an official.
The bilateral defence relations have also transformed from military cooperation to "comprehensive" defence collaboration. Apart from the navies and air forces of the two countries holding regular "Varuna" and "Garuda' series of combat exercises, the two armies have also begun to conduct the "Shakti" war games now.
Defence procurements and joint R&D projects constitute a critical element of the bilateral partnership. France already has two major defence projects underway with India, while it also negotiates to bag the almost $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project to supply 126 Rafale fighters to IAF.
One of the ongoing mega programmes is the construction six French Scorpene submarines at Mazagon Docks under the Rs 23,562 crore `Project-75' at Mumbai. The project, however, has been dogged with huge time and cost overruns. The Navy now hopes to get the desperately-required new submarines in the 2015-20 timeframe, over four years behind schedule.
The other is the one for the upgrade of the 51 French-origin Mirage-2000 fighters, which were first inducted in the IAF fleet in the mid-1980s. The overall upgrade programme of the Mirage-2000s is pegged at Rs 17,547 crore, with the first two fighters being upgraded in France and the rest 49 by Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) under transfer of technology (ToT). The upgrade programme has been dubbed "very exorbitant" by many critics but the IAF says Mirage-2000s will be "virtually new and potent" fighters after undergoing it.
Link - Army chief to visit France to boost ties - The Times of India
