France wants to be India's best partner in defence manufacturing: French envoy Lenain

France wants to be India's "best partner" in boosting its defence manufacturing and has decided to share the best technologies and equipment in sync with the growing "trust" between the two sides, French Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain has said. French and Indian companies are working together on "equipment of the future", platforms and engines.

"I do not think any country provides India with the same level of technology. The progress is also due to the fact that we recognise that India wants to boost its strategic autonomy, wants to build its industrial base and we want to be India's best partner in this move," he told PTI.

Indo-French strategic ties have been on a major upswing after India inked an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for the procurement of 36 Rafale jets at a cost of around Rs 59,000 crore. Defence cooperation has been developing very well because we are very comfortable with India and we have decided that we could share our best technology, state-of-the-art equipment, best-in-class technology," he said. The two sides are now looking at further bolstering the strategic partnership in view of the evolving global geo-political landscape triggered by the crisis in Ukraine and developments in the Indo-Pacific region.

"From the beginning, we were the best partners in the Make-in-India policy. Now that India is switching to the Atma Nirbhar policy, we are also there for India," Lenain said. He said France is ready to co-develop equipment with India and share know-how.

In 2017, India unveiled the ambitious strategic partnership (SP) model to facilitate joint ventures between select private Indian firms and foreign defence majors to build military platforms like submarines and fighter jets in India. The SP model aims to create a vibrant defence manufacturing ecosystem in the country through joint ventures between Indian corporates and global defence majors.
The government has initiated a series of measures in the last few years to boost domestic defence manufacturing. In March,2022  the defence ministry said it plans to procure military equipment worth Rs 5 lakh crore from the domestic industries in the next five to seven years in line with its policy of promoting indigenous defence manufacturing. India has been one of the largest importers of arms globally. According to estimates, the Indian armed forces are projected to spend around USD 130 billion (one billion is equal to 100 crores) in capital procurement in the next 5 years.

Source: Business Insider India