'I want to refer to what PM Modi said on Rafale deal,' says French President Macron

On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron reacted on the Rafale deal row describing it as a "government-to-government" discussion, news agency PTI reported.

According to reports, Macron also stated that he was not in power when the multi-billion dollar agreement for 36 fighter jets was signed between India and France.

"I will be very clear. It was a government-to-government discussion and I just want to refer to what Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi very clearly said a few days ago," Macron, who became French President in May last year, told reporters here Tuesday without elaborating.

"I don't have any other comment. I was not in charge at that time and I know that we have very clear rules," he said in his first comment on the issue.

Macron was answering a query on whether or not the Indian government, at any point, had told France or Dassault - the French aerospace major - that they had to accept Reliance as the Indian partner for the Rafale deal.

India had inked an inter-governmental agreement with France in September last year for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore, nearly one-and-half years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the proposal during a visit to Paris. The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September 2019.

"This one is very important to me because this is a strategic" coalition and not just an industrial relation. "That is my point. I just want to refer to what PM Modi said on this situation," he said.

A controversy around the Rafale deal erupted when French media quoted former president Francois Hollande as saying that the selection of the Indian company in the Rafale deal was done at the behest of New Delhi.

Hollande said that the Indian government proposed Reliance Defence as the partner for the French aerospace giant in the Rs 58,000 crore Rafale deal and France did not have a choice.

The report quoted Hollande as saying, "It was the Indian government that proposed this service group, and Dassault which negotiated with Ambani. We had no choice, we took the interlocutor who was given to us."

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi-led Congress party recently raised several questions about the deal including the rates and accused the government of compromising national interest and security while promoting "crony capitalism" and causing a loss to the public exchequer.

Prime Minister Modi had announced the procurement of a batch of 36 Rafale jets after holding talks with the French president Hollande on April 10, 2015, in Paris. The final deal was sealed on September 23, 2016.

The French government has said it was in no manner involved in the choice of Indian industrial partners.

In its statement, Dassault Aviation said the contract for the supply of 36 Rafale jets is a government-to-government agreement, adding "It provides for a separate contract in which Dassault Aviation commits to making compensation investments (offsets) in India worth 50 per cent of the value of the purchase."

(With inputs from PTI)