NICE, France, June 14: India’s approach in the defense sector is to increasingly advance the “Make in India” initiative with a focus on co-development, co-design, co-production, and co-manufacturing, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Sunday, referring to ongoing discussions on Rafale aircraft and underscoring New Delhi’s emphasis on enhancing indigenous capabilities.
Addressing a special briefing on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first leg of his visit to France, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that India’s approach to defense cooperation, including discussions surrounding the Rafale fighter aircraft, is guided by the objective of maximizing local production and manufacturing.
“The Indian Air Force operates the Rafale, and consequently, dialogue has progressed between the governments and air forces of both nations. Regarding the indigenization of the Rafale, it has always been our stance, and the Prime Minister has emphasized this in all his meetings, that India’s perspective in the defense sector is to increasingly advance the ‘Make in India’ initiative,” Misri said.
“We aim to move toward co-developing, co-designing, co-producing, and co-manufacturing. Therefore, maximizing production, design, and manufacturing within India is desirable and remains our preference,” he added.
The foreign secretary noted that discussions during the prime minister’s visit extended beyond the Rafale platform and covered a broad spectrum of defense cooperation between the two countries.
“While today’s discussions covered various topics beyond the Rafale, the underlying theme was that for any defense platform under consideration, we must proceed with the fundamental objective of maximizing local content and local manufacturing. Our cooperation should be structured with this in mind,” Misri said.
His remarks came after Prime Minister Modi concluded the first leg of his visit to France in Nice, during which he held bilateral and delegation-level talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and jointly inaugurated the Bharat Innovates 2026 conclave.
Earlier this month, India issued a Letter of Request (LoR) to France for a mega government-to-government deal worth approximately Rs 3.25 lakh crore to purchase 114 Rafale fighter jets for the Indian Air Force.
Top Defense Ministry sources told ANI that the Letter of Request was issued last month by the ministry’s Acquisition Wing to French government officials.
The deal would see 94 Rafale jets manufactured in India by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation in partnership with an Indian company.
The French side is expected to respond to India’s Letter of Request within the next two to three months, and both sides are likely to conclude negotiations and finalize the deal within the next year, sources said.
India is facing a critical shortage of fighter aircraft squadrons and has been making efforts to address the shortfall by inducting advanced 4.5-generation-plus Rafale aircraft in large numbers.
While the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy have already placed orders for 62 Rafale aircraft, the proposed order for 114 additional jets would increase the total to 176.
The Indian Navy has also expressed its intention to procure 31 more aircraft to address maritime threats, potentially taking the total number of Rafales in India to more than 200.
As part of the agreement, this would be the first time that Rafale aircraft are manufactured outside France, with approximately 50 percent localization.
“First-time ‘Make in India’ Rafales outside France, backed by a government-to-government agreement, no intermediaries, full transparency in the project, significant levels of localization, and full authority to integrate Indian weapons and systems are the highlights of this program. It also enables us to induct fighter aircraft relatively quickly because the first of the Rafale Marines will start arriving in 2028, and after that, over a period of time, about three-and-a-half years from now, the first of these Air Force Rafales will also start coming,” the defense secretary told ANI after the proposal received clearance from the Defense Acquisition Council in February.
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