Days after PM's France visit; MEA revise joint statement, omit key points on defence deal

After the proposed deal for acquiring 26 Rafale jets and the agreement for the construction of three Scorpene submarines in India were not included in the bilateral documents issued after the Modi-Macron summit held in Paris last week, the government has clarified that an earlier version of the documents was mistakenly uploaded on the external affairs ministry’s website for a 'short while' and that it was 'not the agreed upon text in any way', TOI reported on 16 July quoting govt sources.

The report also said that these mega defence procurements, estimated to cost around Rs 90,000 crore are still in the early stages and final approvals on the deals may take over a year.

The approved text now on the website is the same one as published by the French government, TOI said.

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