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The British Prime Minister, Mr David Cameron, has pledged to do all he can to persuade India to choose the Eurofighter Typhoon over Dassault Aviation's Rafale, despite the French firm emerging as the preferred bidder in the race for the $10-billion contract to supply 126 fighter jets.
“It doesn't rule out Typhoon,” Mr Cameron told Members of Parliament during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday. “I will do everything I can.”
“The decision is obviously disappointing…India has assessed [the Rafale] as the lowest bid but they have not awarded the contract,” he told MPs. Dassault Aviation emerged as the lowest – or “L1” bidder – on Tuesday, beating the four-nation German-led consortium, which also included Britain, Italy, and Spain.
It was seen as a major blow for Mr Cameron, who has made much of his bid to encourage India to make Britain its “partner of choice,” picking the country for his first international trip as Prime Minister in 2010. Some Members of Parliament and the right-wing press called for Mr Cameron to re-consider the decision to give India £1.2 billion in aid over four years in light of the developments, while unions warned there could be job losses at BAE Systems as a result (Mr Cameron told MPs that he didn't expect job losses).
Mr Liam Fox, a former defence minister, pointed the finger at Germany, for failing to give the bid the decisive leadership it needed, according to The Times . German Chancellor Ms Angela Merkel is yet to respond to the developments. Mr Cameron's comments suggest that the campaign is far from over.
A source told Business Line it “wasn't unheard of” for an L-2 (that is not the lowest) bidder to win. However, Eurofighter and its consortium members remain cautious about their next step. Eurofighter expressed its disappointment, but noted that “this is not yet a contract signature and contract negotiations are still ahead”.
“Based on the Indian Government feedback, we will carefully analyze and evaluate this situation with our European partner companies and their governments.”
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