With the recent cancellation of the $1.6 billion order bagged by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), for supplying the Airbus transport planes to the Indian Air Force (IAF), the Indian government is being criticised for holding a bias against European firms and favouring the US.
The European major EADS had legitimately won the order for supplying Airbus transport planes to the IAF. However, the deal was cancelled and no reasons were furnished by the Indian Defence Ministry. The IAF selected the multi-role tanker-transport Airbus A330 after negotiating with companies for four years only to find the deal cancelled. Even the IAF is terribly upset over such flippant behaviour from the Indian Defence Ministry.
In addition, another move by the Indian Defence Ministry which corroborates the theory that US companies are being favoured over European firms is the recent decision to award a large tender for “secure defence communication” equipment to the US firm Motorola. This deal also belonged to EADS as it was the winner but instead, the US firm Motorola was awarded without explanation. Another instance of the US preference has been the deal with a French-German conglomeration Eurocopter, for buying 197 helicopters, which was also cancelled by the Defence Ministry and Boeing’s P81 Poseidon reconnaissance aircrafts were preferred over the Airbus in another deal.
Analysts feel that this US fixation of India may lead to some friction between the European firms and the Indian government. While European firms are ones who offer technology transfer to India without hesitation, it is the US which acts unfriendly to India in these cases. Hence, it is even more disheartening to European firms for dumping them despite having won the contracts.
Defence Minister A K Antony commented that he was only following orders from the top brass. However, the question of cancelling finalised orders between two nations after winning tenders and providing other requirements looms large over the Indian government and a possible influence and pressure from the US on India.
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