10th Indo-French Defence Cooperation Meet in Delhi on Dec 17-18

New Delhi, Dec 13 (UNI) The Indo-French High Committee on Defence Cooperation will meet here from December 17 to discuss defence related activities such as joint exercises, high-level visits, transfer of technology and activities relating to co-development and co-production.

The two-day 10th Meeting will be co-chaired by Defence Secretary Vijay Singh and representative of French Minister of Defence Thierry Borja de Mozota.

The High Committee has three sub-committees under it. The sub-committee on Military Cooperation has representatives from the headquarters of Integrated Defence Services and the three services.

The second sub-committee deals with strategic issues and the third one is on Defence Industry Procurement and Research and Technology.

The sub-committee on Military Cooperation will role out plan for service-to-service activities for the coming year while the sub-committee on strategic issues will discuss matters relating to regional issues. The sub-committee on Defence Industry Procurement and Research and Technology will discuss the Transfer of Technology, joint development and production.

Earlier in January 1982, a bilateral MoU on supply of defence equipment was signed with France in the context of the sale of Mirage Aircraft, aimed at the uninterrupted supply of defence equipment, services and related technology from France to India.

A Defence Cooperation Working Group, set up under the MoU, met regularly until 1995 when it was interrupted because of the reported French move to sell Mirage 2000 Aircraft to Pakistan.

Subsequently, as a result of initiative of the Former France President Jacques Chirac during his visit to India in 1998, a Government-to-Government agreement was reached and cooperation in the field of Defence was revitalised following which the Indo-French High Committee on Defence Cooperation meetings are conducted every year alternatively in India and France.

The 9th Meeting of this Committee was held on November 9-10, last year in Paris.

UNI