With the recently published Pentagon report raising security concerns with claims that China has built a large 100-home civilian village inside disputed territory between China's Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and India's Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), defence analysts believe that India needs to keep its guard up.
Another batch of Rafale takes to the skies on a nonstop flight to India with midair refueling by (the) UAE. Indian Air power grows further!!” the Indian Embassy in Paris tweeted. The embassy also posted a video of the jets taking off from an airbase.
Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his 'courage and decisiveness', the minister said the Rafale jets were purchased only because the PM took the right decision to get them through an Inter-Governmental Agreement with France, after the long pending procurement case for them could not progress.
This is the first batch of 36 Rafale fighter jets for which India had signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in 2016 for Rs 58,000 crore.
India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in 2016 to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets for Rs 58,000 crore.
The Supreme Court on December 14 last year gave a clean chit to the Centre on the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.
PM Modi said that the BJP after coming to power had taken steps to strengthen the armed forces by bringing in advanced submarines and Rafale fighter jets.
At a ceremony in France on October 8, Singh formally took the delivery of the first of the 36 long-awaited French-made aircraft acquired by the Indian Air Force.
This was his second among a series of rallies in the state, making his first public appearance since he stepped down as the Congress president over the party's embarrassing debacle in the Lok Sabha polls.
At the conclusion of his three-day visit to France on Wednesday, Rajnath Singh had taken specific note of any tax concerns that foreign investors may have.
