The French Minister for Defence, Gerard Longuet was on a two-day visit to India, as an important step to further Indo-French strategic partnerships, strengthened by the visit of the French President Nicolas Sarkozy in December last.

The French Minister who held several meetings with various senior officials both in the government and also with the Chiefs of the three armed services, was also pitching for Dassault Rafale aircraft which is one of the two shortlisted contenders for the medium multirole combat aircraft acquisition by the Indian Air Force.

“We have one single speaking partner (Dassault) instead of four partners (Eurofighter Typhoon is from Italy, Germany, Spain and the UK),” Longuet said.