India And France Unveil New Defence Roadmap: Joint Helicopter Production, Full Technology Transfer For Fighter Jets Among Deals Signed

Amid the Republic Day celebrations, India and France have unveiled a new "defence production roadmap" to bolster their defense industrial cooperation, emphasising co-designing, co-development, co-production of military hardware.

As reported by Hindustan Times, both countries will jointly produce a multi-mission helicopter in India, and French engine maker Safran is prepared to transfer "100 per cent technology" for building fighter jet engines in India.

Also, the two counties reached agreements on defence space partnership, satellite launches, joint research in clean energy, health care cooperation, collaboration in the field of public administration, and activation of five-year validity of Schengen visas for Indian students pursuing their Master’s degree in France.

As part of the deal, Tata and Airbus Helicopters will collaborate to produce H125 helicopters in India, establishing the country's first private-sector helicopter assembly line.

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The production of the inaugural made-in-India H125 helicopter is set to commence in 2026

Foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra said that NewSpace India Limited and Arianespace have also finalised an MoU to cooperate on satellite launches.

The letter intent that the two countries have agreed on ould essentially focus on areas such as space situational awareness which is very important to build an understanding of the kind of traffic which is up there in the space, collision avoidance, again because of traffic, Earth monitoring from the space, remote sensing, communications and broadcasting.

Responding to a question on cooperation in the Indian Ocean region and Indo-Pacific, Kwatra said both India and France are resident powers in this part of the world and they can cooperate to mitigate the challenges and harvest the opportunities that exist.

“That has always been a very important priority of discussions between the leaders. And discussions this time were no exception”, he said.

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