By Pierre Tran
PARIS — Dassault Aviation is in the “final phase” of price negotiations with India for 36 Rafale fighters, with the company in talks with potential local partners to build a hoped-for 90 more units, chairman Eric Trappier said March 10.
“We are getting closer,” he said as the company presented 2015 results. “We are in the final phase.”
The talks continue after Trappier had in January set a four-week target, when France and India signed an intergovernmental agreement on New Delhi buying 36 fighters.
Dassault seeks to set up “a real partnership” with Indian industry rather a conventional offset, which requires investing in unrelated sectors, he said. That partnership approach would see Safran, Thales and other French suppliers working with local partners on the Rafale if New Delhi agreed the order for 36 and followed up with a further 90 units, he said. That second order was needed as the former figure was too small to justify a local build.
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