India and France have announced a “defence industrial road map” for cooperation on defence production, future collaboration on “co-design and co-development” of military hardware.
Also signed key agreements on space cooperation.
The road map was part of a number of agreements between the two countries that were sealed during talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron in Jaipur on Thursday.
This will also bring some parity with the India-U.S. defence production plan finalised last year.
However, differences over some of the language on the road map held up a “joint statement” between them for several hours on Friday before it was released.
Mr. Macron was in Delhi as part of a short 30-hour visit to India, and was accompanied by a delegation of 40 officials, including his new Minister for Foreign Affairs Stéphane Séjourné, and Ministers of Defence and Culture.
The two sides also signed a new agreement for a defence-space partnership that will see them collaborate on “space situational awareness”, and an MoU on coordinating on satellite launches.
along with other agreements on partnerships in energy, digital health, agriculture, and education.
While the two countries did not announce any progress on negotiations for the big-ticket government-to-government deals on fighter jets, engines and submarines that were announced during Mr. Modi’s visit to Paris last July.
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