Wednesday, February 01, 2012

You Can Only Rent France

India has decided to go with the French Rafale for their new fighter:

India has decided to buy 126 fighter jets from French firm Dassault in a $11 billion deal that is one of the world's largest arms contracts.

Apparently, the Indians decided it was best to lock France into supplying India with arms rather than see France sell arms to China.

I can't say India is wrong for thinking that way.

But India may underestimate France's duplicity. We'll see if France remains an exclusively India arms supplier in Asia.

UPDATE: Welcome Bharat Rakshak readers. I hope India enjoys their Raffies--a fine plane, I'm sure. I'm just saying don't count on France to be more than a supplier of a fine plane. And don't assume that France won't resume arms shipments to China when Paris feels they can get away with it.