No pressure to pick Anil firm: Trappier

NEW DELHI: Dassault CEO Eric Trappier, refuting Congress’s charges in the Rafale aircraft deal, clarified about the firm’s offsets partnership with Reliance Defence. He said the French company was not putting any money into the Indian firm. “The money is going into the joint venture. I put my knowhow on how to produce. I have

engineers

and workers of Dassault who are taking the lead as far as the industrial part of the deal is concerned. At the same time, I have a company like Reliance which is putting money into this JV as it wants to develop its country,” he said.


Trappier said Dassault had so far invested Rs 40 crore in the JV, the total value of which was Rs 800 crore. “We are supposed to put about Rs 800 crore together as 50:50 into this company. For the time being, to start work in the hangar and to pay workers and employees, we have put in around Rs 40 crore,” he added.

He said there was no pressure from the Indian or French governments in selecting Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence as its partner. He said the initial remarks of former French president Francois Hollande had been clarified. He said the French firm was under no obligation to reveal its offsets partners for the first three years.

On the pricing issue — subject of a bitter political war between BJP and Congress — Trappier said the price of the flyaway aircraft for the NDA deal, as against the terms being negotiated but not finalised when UPA was in office, was 9% cheaper. “The price of the Rafale in flyaway condition is less expensive in the 36 (aircraft) contract than the 126 contract,” he said.

Trappier said negotiations for the 126 aircraft contract did not go smoothly and this was why the Indian government decided to reconfigure the deal. He also made it clear that the price of flyaway fighters could be compared in the NDA and UPA contexts. The weaponry to be added to the planes was a different contract.

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