India close to signing huge arms deals with France and Russia

[txlibdem]

Indian defence officials are scrambling to finalise the details of a series of arms contracts worth tens of billions of pounds to be signed during presidential visits by Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia this month.

The emerging south Asian power has embarked on a huge and ambitious modernisation of its military that will see up to £100bn spent on weapons systems, technology, planes, ships and submarines over the next five years, according to some estimates. Indian strategists, historically focused on their western frontier with Pakistan, now fear being outgunned by the Chinese military.

The size of the Indian market has sparked a scramble among western leaders to win lucrative deals for their ailing economies. India's state news agency reported that Russia had offered its latest low-noise Amur-1650 class submarines to India in an estimated £6bn deal.

The Indians are already building French-designed submarines and Paris is keen to persuade Delhi to expand the current programme rather than opt for a new contract with Moscow.

By far the biggest deal is a £22.5bn joint agreement between Delhi and Moscow to develop a "fifth-generation" advanced fighter jet. Likely to be signed during Medvedev's pre-Christmas visit, it will see Indian and Russian engineers collaborating on the design of the aircraft and production split between the two nations.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/02/india-arms-contracts-russia-france

The big money goes to Russia and France. Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

Barack Obama's India trip set to seal £6bn worth of deals for US

American firms are set to finalise deals worth around $10bn (£6bn) with India that will support 54,000 jobs back home, senior White House aide Michael Froman told reporters.

Some 20 deals are in the pipeline, including an engine contract for General Electric and a $2.7bn commission for passenger aircraft from Boeing for one of India's fast-expanding private airlines. However, the $4.5bn sale by Boeing of C-17 military transport planes is still being negotiated.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/07/obama-india-trip-deals-6bn

Sarkozy and Medvedev are very convincing leaders, trusted to keep their word.