Rafale International — the joint venture set up by Dassault Aviation, Safran Group and Thales to promote the Rafale fighter aircraft to international customers — has met more than 100 French SMEs in two days of Business to Business events. The events, which were attended by Indian officials, took place in Paris on 19th September along with the GIFAS, the French Aerospace Industries Association, and on 21st September in Bordeaux, under the patronage of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Council.

BPI France and the French defence procurement agency DGA took part in both events.

Rafale International and its partners presented their vision on how best to contribute to the Make in India policy and highlighted opportunities arising for French SMEs to invest and set up production activities in India alongside Dassault Aviation, Safran and Thales in connection with the Rafale offset programme.

Indian Embassy representatives emphasized the critical importance of the Make in India policy and the Foreign investment policy for the Indian aerospace and defense sectors and attended networking B2B lunches in Paris and in Bordeaux to answer questions from participating companies.

The seminars presented business opportunities aimed at enhancing the ties between the French and Indian aerospace communities in order to define areas of cooperation and pave the way towards building up a world class aero-defence manufacturing eco-system in India.

Dassault Aviation and Thales are both in the process of creating joint ventures with Reliance Defence. The Indian company has also signed an MoU with Daher Aerospace covering a strategic partnership in the design and development of aerospace components.