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

New Delhi France wants to be India’s “best partner” in boosting its defence manufacturing and has de

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.

Without divulging specific details, the envoy 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 ₹59,000 crore.

“Defence has always been a very strong component of our cooperation because there is a lot of trust between our two countries. When you want to work on these issues, you need trust because you commit yourself for 10, 20, 30 years,” Mr. Lenain said.

“This trust is the main asset that we have. 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.