Pact with Ambani obligatory to seal Rafale deal: French media

Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 11

A French news website has added a fresh twist to the Rafale deal by questioning as to how Anil Ambani-led Reliance got into a joint venture with Dassault Aviation.

Citing internal documents from Dassault — the makers of Rafale — the website ‘mediapart.fr’ reported: “A senior management figure of the French group (Dassault) told staff representatives that the joint venture with Reliance was agreed as ‘compensation’ in the Rafale deal and that it was both ‘imperative and obligatory’ for Dassault in securing the contract.”

The French company in a statement has denied the charge, saying it had ‘freely chosen’ India’s Reliance Group for a partnership to set up joint-venture Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd (DRAL) to manufacture parts for Rafale aircraft and Falcon 2000 business jets.

The news item goes on to say that the document contains a summary by staff representatives of presentation of the DRAL plant in Nagpur. The presentation was made on May 11, 2017, in France.

The aviation company also mentioned that it created the joint venture to deliver the offsets committed to India. “In compliance with the Indian regulations (Defence Procurement Procedure) and as frequent with such a contract, Dassault Aviation has committed to offsets in India worth 50 per cent of the value of the purchase,” the release read.

Two weeks ago, the website had published an interview with former French President Hollande who claimed India had proposed Reliance’s name as the offset partner for Dassault Aviation.