French President Emmanuel Macron will be landing in Jaipur Thursday where he will hold the delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which will be focused on defence deals

New Delhi: French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to India is expected to give further push to the two big-ticket defence deals concerning the sale of Rafale fighter planes, nuclear energy cooperation and Scorpene-class submarines even as he holds bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jaipur, which will be his first stop after arriving on Thursday.

President Macron is visiting India as he has been invited as the Chief Guest for the 75th Republic Day celebrations that will see French armed forces as well as fighter aircraft taking part in the parade in the capital New Delhi’s Rajpath.

The visit, which comes six months after Prime Minister Modi’s visit to France, is likely to result in launching the price negotiations for the purchase of Rafale-M (Marine) fighter jets as well as submarines for the Indian Navy, official sources said.

Both these multibillion dollar deals were cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) of the Ministry of Defence in July prior to the Prime Minister’s visit there for participating in the Bastille Day parade as the guest of honour.

India has plans to buy 26 Rafale-M fighter planes that will be deployed on aircraft carriers INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya. In the early part of 2023, the Indian Navy expressed its preference to procure the French Rafale-M by Dassault Aviation over Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet in a tightly contested bid. The Navy currently operates Russian MiG 29K for INS Vikrant and has plans to deploy completely indigenous fighter jets in the future for its aircraft carriers.

Apart from this, the Navy also wants to buy three additional Scorpene-class submarines for its fleet, which will be built in Mazagon Dockyard Ltd. (MDL) in Mumbai under a repeat order as part of Project-75. Under Project-75 India, six submarines were constructed at MDL in collaboration with the Naval Group of France. Five out of the six submarines

During Modi’s visit to France last July, it seemed that both deals have been shelved as their mention was omitted from the joint statement. Eventually it was clarified by both governments that the deals while approved will have to undergo price negotiations which have not yet started.

According to the sources, this is the reason why President Macron will be bringing his Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu in this trip so that the price negotiations can be launched. Both sides had an initial discussion in October last year when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh went to Paris for the 5th Annual Defence Dialogue.

Discussions On Red Sea Crisis To Be Held

French President Macron’s visit comes at a time when tensions around the Red Sea are at an all-time high with Iran-backed Houthis attacking merchant vessels in reaction to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. In return, the US and the UK have launched a joint military assault on specific Houthi targets located inside Yemen.

This issue will also come up for discussions between Modi and Macron even as the Indian Navy has also deployed over 10 warships in the area around the central and north Arabian Sea.

Randhir Jaiswal, Spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs, last week told a news conference, “In regard to what's happening in the Red Sea area, we have made our position very clear. It's a matter of concern to us. We give a lot of importance to freedom of navigation and freedom of commerce in that region.”

He also said, “Whatever is happening there not just impacts us, but impacts the economic interests and several other interests of so many people across the world. So that is where we are. We are closely monitoring the situation and looking at the unfolding situation with a constant watch.”

India and France are strategic partners under the Indo-Pacific framework. As a result, both sides will discuss the matter and chalk out the next steps. In 2018, India and France agreed on a ‘Joint Strategic Vision of India-France Cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region’.

“We believe that India-France partnership will be a crucial pillar of the inter-connected and intersecting arrangements in the Indo Pacific region and indispensable for a peaceful and prosperous future for the Indo Pacific region,” stated the India-France Indo-Pacific Roadmap that was signed last July.

President Macron has previously been in India on a State Visit in March 2018 and on an official visit in September 2023 for the Delhi G20 Summit.

In Jaipur, Macron will tour Amber Fort and interact with artisans, stakeholders of Indo-French cultural projects, as well as students. Thereafter, he will be received by Prime Minister Modi and the two leaders will visit a few landmarks of the Pink City together, including Jantar Mantar. Following this the bilateral talks will be held.

President Macron will witness the Republic Day parade on Friday and will leave on that day itself.