India - Rafale - Q&A from the press briefing (8 April 2021)

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Q : Do you have a response to Mediapart reports on the 2016 Rafale agreement with India?

A : As already stated in 2018, when some of these reports were first published in the Indian press, the intergovernmental agreement signed on September 23, 2016, by the French and Indian governments to supply India with 26 Rafale jets solely obligates the French government to guarantee the delivery and quality of those aircraft.

The French government is in no way involved in the choice of Indian industrial partners who were, are or will be selected by French manufacturers. Under the Indian procurement process, French manufacturers are completely free to choose the Indian industrial partners they believe to be best suited to the job and to submit to the Indian government, for its approval, the offset projects they want to carry out in India with local partners in order to fulfil their obligations in that regard.

In any case, agreements have already been signed by French manufacturers and a very large number of Indian companies, both public and private, in compliance with Indian law.

In no case will we confirm the details of the Mediapart article to which you refer.