France eyes billion-dollar warplane deals in new strategic partnership with India, UAE

France has already sold Rafale fighter jets to India and the UAE but proposed a joint programme for the aircraft under its new trilateral partnership

The grouping comes as the countries seek to preserve their ‘strategic autonomy’ amid the US-China rivalry, and follows Australia’s snub of French submarines in favour of the Aukus deal

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A French Rafale jet fighter takes off from France’s aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle. Photo: AP

Published: 12:00pm, 4 Oct 2022

France could soon receive billions of dollars of new military orders from its recent formation of a trilateral strategic partnership with India and the United Arab Emirates, analysts have said.

The three-way partnership between the long-standing allies, launched at a meeting of their foreign ministers in New York on September 20, aims to boost maritime security, blue economy and regional connectivity, and food and energy security in the Indian Ocean.

France, India and the UAE were motivated to join hands to preserve their “strategic autonomy” amid diplomatic pressure to side with the US against China, analysts said.

“These middle powers want to retain their own strategic space to manoeuvre amid sharpening great power contestation,” said Harsh V. Pant, a professor of international relations at King’s College London.

French President Emmanuel Macron exits the cockpit of a Rafale jet fighter helped by Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier (right) while visiting the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget in 2017. Macron had made concessions on the stalled sale of Rafales to the UAE, leading to the surprise signing of a €17 billion contract for 80 of the warplanes last December. Photo: EPA

“They are reluctant to be part of any one bloc, so enhancing ties among themselves is a good option to retain their strategic autonomy,” he added.