NEW DELHI — An Indian cabinet committee gave its approval Wednesday to a long-delayed deal for the purchase of 36 fighter jets from France's Dassault, as the country looks to counter China's growing military clout.
A senior Defence Ministry official said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet Committee on Security had given its green light to the multibillion-dollar Rafale jet purchase at a meeting in New Delhi and that the defense ministers of both France and India would ink the agreement on Friday.
"The deal was approved at the meeting in the evening," the official told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity.
"It will now be formally signed by Indian and French defense ministers on Sept. 23 in New Delhi," the senior official told AFP.
The official said that other details including the exact amount and formalities "will become clear after the signing event."
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