The French government said on Sunday it feared damage to its relations with India after former President Francois Hollande stirred controversy about the Rafale deal.

Hollande, who had signed the deal in 2016 and left office last year, has been quoted as saying that it was the Indian government that had proposed a private company (Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence) as the offset partner for Rafale-maker Dassault Aviation.

This contradicts the Narendra Modi government’s stand that it had nothing to do with Dassault’s choice of partner.

Hollande’s purported claim that “we didn’t have a word to say” about the choice of offset partner has added fuel to Opposition charges that the government helped Ambani at the expense of the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

“I find these remarks made overseas, which concern important international relations between France and India, do not help anyone and above all do not help France,” junior foreign minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said on Sunday about Hollande.

“Because one is no longer in office, causing damage to a strategic partnership between India and France by making remarks that clearly cause controversy in India is really not appropriate,” Lemoyne said in an interview on Radio J.

Hollande made the purported comments to defend himself against accusations of a conflict of interest because Ambani’s Reliance conglomerate had partially financed a film produced by his girlfriend, Julie Gayet, in 2016.