The agenda for the Strategic Dialogue will also seek to push civil nuclear partnership. At the August 22 summit the two sides reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen cooperation in defence industry field

NEW DELHI: India and France NSAs displaying urgency will meet in Delhi for Strategic Dialogue on Thursday — exactly a week after Modi-Macron summit near Paris — to push implementation of Summit outcomes with particular focus on defence, counter-terror, space, cyber security and Indo-Pacific partnerships.

The agenda for the Strategic Dialogue will also seek to push civil nuclear partnership that would involve setting up of world’s biggest nuclear power plant at Jaitapur, ET has learnt.

The proposal for second set of 36 Rafales for the Indian Air Force, heavy helicopters for Indian Coast Guard, new engines for jet fighters, helicopters for Indian Air Force and Scorpene submarines will be on the agenda for the Dialogue for furthering defence partnership, ET has further learnt.

The first batch from 36 Rafales that France will supply to India will be handed over in September in presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in France.

At the August 22 summit the two sides reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen cooperation in defence industry field and extended their support to existing and upcoming partnerships between the defence companies of the two countries in the spirit of “Make in India” and for the mutual benefit of both countries.

Both sides at the summit had also noted with satisfaction that Indian MSMEs are increasingly becoming part of global supply chains of French Defence and Aerospace OEMs and reaffirmed to give further impetus to this trend. There is an ongoing collaboration between aerospace and defence industrial associations of both countries, SIDM for India and GIFAS for France.

NSA Ajit Doval and his French counterpart Emmanuel Bonne will also seek to further space cooperation that include 12 satellites for monitoring maritime domain in the Indian Ocean Region. “France is positioning itself as an Indo-Pacific power with interests from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific and India is the key partner,” a source explained.