The Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, at the Saint-Cyr military school on September 7, 2020. -

Mathieu Pattier / SIPA

In a period of heightened tensions between India and China, it is not trivial to go to New Delhi to promote the French military industry.

This is what the French Minister of the Armed Forces will do this Thursday during an express visit.

This will be Florence Parly's third visit to India, a country due to join the UN Security Council in 2021.

Delivery of five Rafale

So, diplomatic, strategic or commercial visit?

A bit of the three, even if the program revolves around a handover ceremony for five Rafales, delivered at the beginning of the summer as part of an order for 36 fighter jets.

The South Asian giant has been France's number one customer for ten years with more than 13 billion euros in orders.

It maintains strained relations with its Pakistani and Chinese neighbors and in recent years has drawn closer to Australia and the United States to counter Beijing's expansionism.

The minister's office expects authorities to "allude" to border disputes with China.

The Rafales could not, however, weigh decisively against the all-powerful Chinese armada, observes Manoj Joshi, an expert from the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

“But there is political significance.

They will boost the morale of the country's defense forces, ”he said, emphasizing the support of Indian opinion for this contract.

Meeting of controversial national security adviser

On the French side, the stake is deeply industrial and commercial.

Florence Parly will obviously meet her counterpart, the Indian Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh, but also the powerful and controversial Ajit Doval, national security adviser.

It was he who took charge of the Kashmir issue under the mandate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, deploying tens of thousands of additional troops to the area in February 2019.

And it is again he who is in the maneuver against China.

The ideal man to talk about arms contracts and Indian strategic autonomy.

Florence Parly, "extremely mobilized on the export front" according to her entourage, travels with all the members of the Rafale economic interest group, including Dassault, Safran, MBDA and Thalès.

Because India is engaged in a vast plan to modernize its military equipment to the tune of 130 billion dollars.

It not only needs airplanes, but also submarines, combat ships, weapons and even drones.

Saving Rafale production

This outlook is all the more important given that the Rafale calendar has a worrying hole between 2024 and 2027, which should be filled as quickly as possible so as not to have to stop the assembly lines.

Well worth a little demonstration of the French fighter plane.

It is scheduled for mid-morning at Ambala air base, located in the far north of the country, on the borders of Pakistan, Kashmir and China.

With Indian pilots at the controls.

World

India becomes second country most affected by coronavirus

By the Web

India bans 118 more Chinese apps for country's 'security'

  • Army

  • Armament

  • Gust

  • Florence parly

  • India

  • World