A $22 billion disaster awaits France’s Hollande. India may be leaning towards buying the more ‘reliable’ Russian Su-30 Jets instead of French Rafales

Now that Hollande has concluded an all nighter in Minsk trying to dig Europe out of the mess it has created in Ukraine, the French President can now, maybe, sort out the Mistral Ship debacle with Russia…which is intrinsically tied into Ukraine and US’s arm twisting of France, as Obama so eloquently put it the other day in his Vox.com interview.

One thing is for sure, Hollande better hurry and sort out the deal with Russia over their paid for Mistral Helicopter ships or else France may suffer an even bigger military contract defeat…losing it’s $22 billion Rafale fighters jet deal to India. India coincidently, is now eyeing a better deal from Russia which will most certainly be a more reliable partner that will not break contracts midway through delivery.

Losing this massive Rafale fighter jet contract with India to Russia would be a stunning defeat for Hollande, and once again underscore how sanctions almost always come back to hurt the party imposing the sanctions much more than the party being sanctioned.

Putin = Winning

Sputnik News Agency reports…

India still has not decided if it will purchase Su-30MKI multirole fighters over France’s Rafale fighters, but the Russian jets are reliable and cheaper, Indian Minister for External Affairs in the North Eastern Region Vijay Kumar Singh told Sputnik on Thursday.

“The French jet fighter is costly. But as far as the SU-30 is concerned, it’s cheap and reliable. The government has so far not taken the final decision,” the minister said.

The statement came after the Indian Air Force said in January it could not confirm media reports that India wanted to scrap the Rafale deal with France and buy Russian jets instead.

Several local media outlets reported in recent days that India could pull out of a deal with France’s Dassault Aviation on the purchase of 126 Rafale multirole fighter aircraft and go for Russian-designed Su-30 jets instead. Reasons cited by Indian media outlets included France’s reluctance to pass on technologies to the Indian side and an increase in the price of the jets.

In January, a source in the Indian Defense Ministry told Sputnik that the country had not made a decision regarding the purchase of the Rafale jets. According to the source, Su-30s are seen as an alternative if the deal with France falls through.

References:

http://sputniknews.com/business/20150212/1018158342.html