Rafale-Ms Omitted, Scorpene Submarines Removed From India-France Joint Statement — Here's Why

The joint statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) late night on 14 July when Prime Minister Narendra Modi met French President Emmanuel Macron did not found any mention of the deal for 26 Rafale-Ms for the Indian Navy.

This was surprising since the Defence Acquisition Council headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has just a day earlier approved an Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for acquiring 26 Rafale-Ms and three scorpene submarines for the Indian Navy.

An updated statement released by MEA on Saturday, even removed the mention of the Scorpene submarine deal from the statement, as well.

This caused further speculations. The MEA has now come out with a clarification on why these were removed.

The MEA says that the mention of Scorpene submarines was removed and Rafale-Ms were entirely skipped, due to the statement being a — 2047 Horizon document — a 25-year roadmap for the India-France relationship.

"Rafale was not put in the roadmap as it's for next 25 years," the MEA said, adding that "the contract will be done before 25 years so we didn't want it going in the statement."

"India wants Rafales and Scorpenes. But now negotiations will take place. Before the contract is signed, we need to discuss with the industry and finalise. You shouldn't read too much into it not being specifically mentioned in the statement," MEA further clarified.

Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra also clarified stating that "the 2047 Horizon document looks at security and sovereignty in a more holistic and a comprehensive manner rather than as a set of individual transactions".

The reason for absence of Rafale deal and removal of Scorpene submarines was because a single military acquisition or non-acquisition doesn't define the relationship between the two countries, Kwatra said.

He said, "The reason for that is because the metrics of defence partnership are not defined by a single acquisition or a non-acquisition, single procurement or a single transaction".