DHAKA: India’s defense minister said Monday that final negotiations to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France would start this month and end as soon as possible, after leaders of the two nations announced the deal last month.

On the eve of a visit by his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian to India, Manohar Parrikar said a bilateral committee would iron out details of the multi-billion dollar long-delayed agreement ‘in a time-bound manner’.

‘The government-to-government committee will be set up which will begin negotiations on the Rafale deal,’ Parrikar told the media.

‘The negotiations will start any time in May and we have to conclude them as early as possible,’ he said in the state of Goa.

BDST: 2101 HRS, MAY 04, 2015
RR