India and France on Friday agreed to a new road map for defence industrial cooperation to explore opportunities for “co-design, co-development and co-production” of advanced defence technologies not only for the two nations but also other countries using these platforms.

This, along with the intensification of the long-running cooperation in space, is among the key takeaways of the deliberations between the two sides in the 30 hours that French President Emmanuel Macron was in India as chief guest of this year’s Republic Day parade.

Asked specifically if there was any conversation on the plan to buy 26 Rafale-M fighter jets for the Indian Navy besides three Scorpene-class submarines, foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said: “The visits are not focused on individual transactions…. When the (India-France) strategic partnership looks at defence and security cooperation, it looks at it from a very holistic perspective — how it strengthens the sovereignty and the strategic security space between the two countries. It doesn’t look at it from the perspective of a set of transactions or the trade-related transactions.”

As for the Safran-Shakti jet engine deal, India’s ambassador to France Jawed Ashraf said: “This is a subject of ongoing discussions… Now, the issue is about arriving at specifications that comply with our future fighter jet requirements. So, this always features in the conversation between the President and the Prime Minister, because what we are looking for is not just manufacturing, transfer of technology, which essentially keeps you going with the same crutches that you have been going on for the past six decades, but to work in the actual design phase…

“Safran is willing to do it with 100 per cent technology transfer in design, development, certification, production… But it’s a very complex subject. And it has to fit in with the overall future requirements. So, these discussions will continue to take place. And, that’s also part of the defence industrial road map.”