Beyond Rafale and G7: India-France ties move from defence deals to strategic industrial partnership

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew into Nice on June 13. The G7 didn't formally begin until June 15 in Evian. That two-day gap was deliberate. It was reserved for a full bilateral with Macron at Villa Kerylos on June 14, where the two leaders also jointly inaugurated the Bharat Innovates event, bringing over 120 Indian tech startups and venture capital together with their French counterparts under the India-France Year of Innovation 2026. The sequencing told you something. France did not invite India to a multilateral one but made room for a bilateral one on the side. The bilateral came first.

France has made clear that it attaches considerable importance to closely involving India, which currently holds the BRICS presidency, in its G7 presidency. What happened in Nice on June 14, and what will follow in Paris on June 18 when PM Modi attends VivaTech, matters far more to the long-term India-France equation.

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The talks were attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, and senior officials from both countries. Several outcomes were announced across defence, innovation, trade, space and strategic cooperation.

The Rafale Story Has Moved Well Beyond a Purchase

The Rafale is not a deal anymore. It is becoming an industrial ecosystem, and that distinction matters. In April 2025, India and France signed an intergovernmental agreement for 26 Rafale-Marine aircraft for the Indian Navy, meant for INS Vikrant, restoring fixed-wing carrier strike capability India hadn't had for years. It includes transfer of technology for integrating indigenous weapons systems, a Rafale fuselage production facility in India and MRO facilities for engines, sensors and weapons. Tata Advanced Systems is already building that fuselage facility in Hyderabad, with first sections projected to roll off the line in 2028.

In November 2025, Safran inaugurated the first MRO facility outside France for the M88 engine that powers the Rafale, in Hyderabad. The facility services India's own fleet but also Safran's other Rafale export customers. India is being positioned as a regional maintenance hub for the Rafale at a time when the aircraft is spreading across export markets. French technology, Indian manufacturing, and global service reach – that is the Atmanirbhar Bharat play in its most mature form.

On munitions, BEL and Safran signed a 50:50 joint venture in November 2025 to manufacture the HAMMER precision-guided air-to-ground weapon in India, with indigenisation targeted at 60 per cent progressively. HAMMER is compatible with both the Rafale and the Tejas, so India is building weapons manufacturing capacity that simultaneously serves its imported frontline jet and its homegrown one.

Then there is the largest number still on the table. India formally issued a Letter of Request to France in late May 2026 for 114 Rafale fighters under the MRFA programme. Under the current structure, 18 jets arrive flyaway, and 96 are built in India, with around 50 per cent indigenous content. At the post-meeting briefing in Nice, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri confirmed, "There were talks on Rafale and other issues in today's discussions, but I will say the underlying theme was that in case of any defence platform, we will move forward on the basis that there should be maximum local content and local manufacturing and our cooperation should be designed keeping this in mind." Both sides are targeting final contract conclusion within approximately a year of the LoR.

The Security Architecture Beneath the Big Deals

One major outcome from Nice was that India and France signed a General Security Agreement on the exchange and protection of classified information. It is the kind of agreement that enables everything else: joint development, source code access negotiations, and sensor integration. Without a formal classified information protection framework, the more sensitive technology transfers India is pushing for on the MRFA cannot legally proceed. This was a prerequisite agreement, not a ceremonial one.

The Technologies That Will Define the Next Decade

The bilateral defence relationship today extends well beyond what gets announced at summits. If the Rafale deals represent the immediate layer of the defence partnership, the AMCA engine collaboration is the long game, and it is arguably the more strategically significant of the two. India and France are working towards a Safran-DRDO gas turbine research establishment partnership for the co-development of a 110-120 kN turbofan engine. It is intended to power the AMCA, India's fifth-generation stealth fighter currently in development. It is India's most consequential attempt at a domestic jet engine after the Kaveri programme never crossed the thrust threshold needed for a frontline combat aircraft. Safran has indicated willingness to transfer critical technology, including the single-crystal turbine blade process, mastered by only a handful of nations.

On submarines, INS Vaghsheer, the sixth and last Scorpene, was commissioned in January 2025, completing Project 75. The Indian Navy now operates six submarines, but six is nowhere near enough given the maritime threat environment. China's Type 039A submarines, with their AIP capability, present a growing challenge in the Indian Ocean. India is in commercial negotiations with Naval Group for three additional Scorpene submarines at MDL, which already has the production lines, supply chain and trained workforce. Three more Scorpenes on the same template get submarines in the water faster than waiting for P75(I), six advanced boats being built with Germany's ThyssenKrupp that won't deliver a first vessel until the early 2030s at best. The AIP element is what makes this strategically significant; DRDO's fuel cell-based air-independent propulsion system promises 15 to 21 days of submerged endurance without snorkelling. A French-designed hull with an Indian-developed AIP system is not just a Make in India achievement; it is a direct answer to the threat environment India faces in the IOR.

Beyond the Big Deals

The defence relationship today is not being carried by Rafale alone. Since the start of the year, there has been a steady run of meetings. Rajnath Singh and Catherine Vautrin met in Bengaluru in February for the 6th Annual Defence Dialogue. Ajit Doval held the Strategic Dialogue in January. The military sub-committee met in New Delhi in May. The Maritime Cooperation Dialogue followed in Paris. Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh was in France earlier this month.

The exercises have continued as well. The IAF sent six Su-30 MKIs, a C-17 and refuelling aircraft for GARUDA 2025. French maritime patrol aircraft participated in MILAN 2026. Before that, the Charles de Gaulle carrier strike group had visited India.

This is the sort of activity that rarely gets noticed because there is no contract attached to it. But it does indicate how much time the two establishments are spending with each other. A decade ago, the relationship was largely discussed through the Rafale negotiations. Today there are multiple conversations running simultaneously between the services, the defence ministries, the NSAs and the foreign ministries.

What Nice Actually Produced

The two leaders reviewed the Horizon 2047 roadmap and adopted the Innovation Roadmap 2030 to give the partnership a direction. The MRFA came up, produced a clear Indian position on Make in India as a non-negotiable, but no final announcement. On civil nuclear, India's SHANTI Act, which removes supplier liability and unlocks Western nuclear investment was noted as creating new opportunities for cooperation on small and advanced modular reactors alongside the long-stalled Jaitapur project.

India and France have, with considerable consistency over the past few years, turned every meeting between these two leaders into a delivery moment, a contract signed, a programme advanced, a joint venture announced. Nice continued that pattern where it could, and flagged clearly where the remaining work sits. The security agreement signed on the margins may prove to be the most consequential document of the day. What began as a relationship centred on fighter aircraft and submarines is increasingly moving into manufacturing, maintenance and advanced technology. That shift may prove more consequential than any single announcement made during the visit.

(Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.)