India orders 36 Rafale fighter jets from France

PARIS: India´s prime minister announced Friday that New Delhi had ordered 36 Rafale fighter jets from France in a multi-billion-euro agreement that has been years in the making.

Standing alongside his counterpart Francois Hollande on a visit to France – the first leg of his maiden trip to Europe – Narendra Modi finally relieved the frantic speculation over whether tortuous, years-long negotiations on buying the jets would ever bear fruit.

"I asked the president (Hollande) to supply us with 36 Rafale jet fighter planes, the ready-to-fly models," Modi said at a joint news conference at the Elysee Palace.

While long-blocked exclusive negotiations between the two sides had initially focused on 126 French Rafales, the 36-jet order is manufacturer Dassault´s biggest yet abroad – estimated to be worth nearly four billion euros ($4.2 billion).

Paris sold 24 Rafale jets to Egypt earlier this year.

Negotiations to buy the planes kicked off in 2012 but had been bogged down over cost and New Delhi´s insistence on assembling a portion of the high-tech planes in India.

Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters after Modi´s announcement that all 36 jets would be manufactured in France.

Negotiations, meanwhile, continue on finalising the initial 126-jet agreement.