Islamabad—Indian print and electronic media have suggested that Paris had submitted to Indian blackmail tricks and pressures and cancelled a defence deal with Pakistan
A daily Indian Express report on Wednesday said that India last week finalised a $2.2 billion deal with France to upgrade its fleet of Mirage 2000 fighters and indicated that Paris suspended the sale of electronics and missiles for Pakistan’s JF 17 fighters under “Indian pressure”.
The report claimed that Indian Air Force also finalized a deal with France for upgradation of 51 fighters and the Price Negotiation Committee only last week reached an accord on the cost.
The upgrading of Indian Mirage 2000s will give the aircraft new radar systems, a new weapon suite, missiles, electronic warfare system and modern electronic warfare to convert the combat-proven aircraft into next-generation fighters.
The French move came as a blow to Pakistan government which looked forward to sign an accord with Paris during Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani’s forthcoming visit to Europe.
The Indian report claimed that as India reached the accord France announced that its plans to sell $1.6 billion worth of military equipment for Pakistan’s JF 17 fighters had been put on hold.
Other media reports confirmed that the contract was suspended under Indian pressure while France cited its doubts over Pakistan’s ability to pay for the systems.
According to reports the French industrial ATE (Aeronautics and embedded technologies) has just been banned through CIEEMG (Interministerial Commission on Study of Exports of War Material) to sign a contract to supply hundreds of millions of euros equipment to the Pakistan Air Force. France had originally agreed to equip more than 350 JF-17 aircraft.
After 18 months of negotiations, the French company OTE, coupled with Thales and MBDA were given the contract by Islamabad. It was the first part of a package of six billion euros to equip the whole of the JF-17 Pakistan Air Force, nearly 400 fighters. The contract could be concluded during the forthcoming visit to Paris of Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani later this month.
According to French daily Le Monde is sue on April 3, France “will not give its green light to a contract of 1.2 billion euros for the electronics equipment and missile than a hundred fighter aircraft JF-17, manufactured by Pakistan with Chinese assistance.
One report quoted an advisor of the President of the Republic as saying that “this refusal is, inter alia, related to French-Indian relations.”
According to the Quai d’Orsay “the Pakistanis wanted contrary to the terms of the contract, that the assemblies and equipment of JF-17 will do so on their land.”