Even as India and France begin negotiations to conclude a deal for direct purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets, Germany is still actively pushing for the sale of Eurofighter Typhoon jets to India.
The matter came up for discussion between visiting German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen and her Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar in addition to cooperation on submarines.
“I talked of Eurofighter and [HDW] submarines in my discussions with Mr. Parrikar,” Ms. Leyen told The Hindu on the sidelines of her talk organised by the Observer Research Foundation on Wednesday. This assumes importance as Mr. Parrikar had on several occasions indicated the possibility of procuring another fighter aircraft, in addition to the 36 Rafale jets and Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), to make up for the shortfall in fighter strength of the Air Force.
Germany is one of the contenders for the Navy’s new line of six submarines under Project-75I estimated at over Rs.50,000 crore to be built by an Indian shipyard under technology transfer. Asked about the ‘Make in India’ initiative, Ms. Leyen expressed willingness to collaborate on manufacturing of submarines.
‘Smart approach’“You don’t want only to buy, but you want a close cooperation by manufacturing and producing parts in India too, which I think is a very smart approach for both sides as close cooperation between strategic partners should never be a one way cooperation or collaboration,” she said.
‘Natural partners’Calling India and Germany “natural partners”, Ms. Leyen in her discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi had strongly pitched for deepening cooperation, particularly in the fields of cyberspace and maritime security.
On China’s increased assertions on the high seas, she said there was “humongous interest of all nations” dependent on economic trade to have an “open sea” and observed: “We have to [be] very sensitive, and sensible too, about any attempts to dominate or close trade routes…”
