'Fully committed' to India's 'aatmanirbhar Bharat' plans, says French company Naval Group

|HT|

French company Naval Group on Tuesday said it remains 'fully committed' to India's 'aatmanirbhar Bharat' plans for maritime defence and that it shared the 'same bilateral trust and strategic ties' that marked the relationship between the two countries. "We continue to strengthen our existing commitments and close association with the industry and the Indian Navy… as such focusing efforts on integration of indigenous technology, such as AIP (air independent propulsion) from DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) in Indian Navy submarines," the firm tweeted. Clarification on continued strong ties with India and the Indian Navy comes after the company this week said it was unable to participate in the government's P-75I submarine project, under which six conventional subs are to be built (domestically) for the country's naval defence. The group cited conditions mentioned in the RFP, or request for proposal, related to the AIP system, which allows conventional submarines to stay submerged at higher speeds for longer periods.

"Due to certain conditions in the RFP, the two strategic partners could not forward the request to us and few other FOEMs (foreign original equipment manufacturers) and thus we have not been able to place an official bid for the project," Laurent Videau, Naval Group India's chief said. "… present RFP requires that the fuel cell AIP be sea-proven, which is not the case for us yet since the French Navy does not use such propulsion system," he explained.

That announcement came just a day before prime minister Narendra Modi's scheduled visit to Paris to meet recently re-elected president Emmanuel Macron. The meeting will be the French leader's first with a foreign head of state since he saw off a challenge from far-right Marine Le Pen. In June, India's defence ministry cleared the P-75I project. RFPs were then issued to two shortlisted Indian firms - private company Larsen and Toubro and state-run Mazagaon Docks Limited.

These two (called strategic partners) must tie up with one of five shortlisted foreign firms, one of which is France's Naval Group and then respond to the RFP, per the protocol.

The contract - worth over ₹43,000 crore - will then be awarded based on the ministry's evaluation of responses from the strategic partners.

The P-75I project is part of the Modi government's ongoing efforts to reduce dependence on imported military platforms and boost the domestic defence manufacturing sector.

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