Rajnath Singh to receive Rafale in France and perform Shastra Puja
KI Singh/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will leave New Delhi on Monday, October 7th to France on a two day visit.
On October 8th morning, Rajnath Singh will meet Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic.
Later, Raksha Mantri will participate in the Rafale fighter aircraft handing over ceremony at Merignac along with French Minister of Armed Forces Ms Florence Parly. He will also perform the Shastra Puja on the auspicious occasion of Vijayadashami and fly a sortie in the Rafale fighter aircraft.
Later, Rajnath Singh will hold the Annual Defence dialogue with French Minister of Armed Forces Ms Florence Parly.
On October 9, Raksha Mantri will address the CEOs of the French Defence industry during which he is likely to urge them to participate in “Make in India” and the DefExpo to be held in Lucknow from February 5-8, 2020.
Earlier in January 2019 , government with a view to positioning its most modern fighter jets on both the fronts, Indian air Force will deploy one each squadron of the Rafale combat aircraft at its airbase in Ambala in Haryana and Hashimara in West Bengal.
As per earlier plan, “the first Rafale would be handed over to the Indian air Force in September 2019, but it would be required to undergo intensive 1,500 hours of testing to validate the India Specific Enhancements on it. So, the first batch of the four Rafale fighter planes would arrive at Ambala around May 2020”, senior IAF officials said.
In September 2016, India signed a deal with the French government and Dassault Aviation to acquire 36 Rafale fighter jets for over Euro 7.8 billion to arrest the fall of combat squadrons and meet urgent requirements on the eastern and western fronts.
