India
Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier clarified that the joint venture company, Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited, would be producing only some parts of the Rafale plane along with business jet Falcon and not the entire plane as is being alleged by the Indian opposition party.
New Delhi: Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier on Thursday debunked the Congress allegation that the Narendra Modi government had awarded Ra 30,000 crore worth of offsets in the Rafale deal to Anil Ambani's company. Trappier said his firm had chosen to create a joint venture company with Reliance on its own to do only 10% of the offsets obligations of the deal.
The government sources have, in the past, said that Anil Ambani’s firm would not be getting more than Rs 6,500 crore worth of business in the mega-deal, but the Congress has been alleging that Prime Minister Modi has given an entire contract to Reliance.
“Signing an offsets contract is a condition imposed by Indian law (Defence Procurement Procedure). The realisation of offsets is an obligation and, under the Indian law, the choice of partners belongs to us," the Dassault Aviation CEO said.
"Dassault Aviation has decided, in full agreement with this regulation, to create the DRAL (Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited) joint venture with Reliance and to build a plant in Nagpur, which should enable us to meet approximately 10% of these offsets obligations. We are in negotiations with around 100 Indian companies, including around 30 with which partnerships have already been concluded,” Trappier told AFP in an interview.
The Dassault CEO clarified on the Congress charge about it choosing Reliance over public sector HAL to do offsets. He said, “Dassault Aviation decided to establish a long-term presence in India through DRAL, a joint venture whose governance is ensured by an Indian CEO (Executive Director, NDLR) and a French COO (Director of Operations, NDLR). DassaultAviation thus exercises technical as well as industrial control of operations, applying its standards and flexibility.”
Trappier clarified that the joint venture company would be producing only some parts of the Rafale plane along with business jet Falcon and not the entire plane as is being alleged by the Indian opposition party.
Asked about the controversy in India, Trappier said, "The controversies are sad but we are calm." He said, "The DRAL has an Indian CEO in Mr Sampathkumaran ST and the Nagpur facility of the firm is coming up well."
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