Sitharaman: Rafale deal details cannot be disclosed as per agreement

     Written by : SMTV24x7 | Tue, Feb 06, 2018, 12:11 AM

Sitharaman: Rafale deal details cannot be disclosed as per agreement

New Delhi, Feb 06: On Monday, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament that the details of Rafale fighter jets deal with France cannot be disclosed as it is a 'classified information'. She said according to the inter-Government agreement signed by India and France the deal information is classified and it cannot be disclosed.

Sitharaman's response, in a written reply, came to a question by Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha member Naresh Agrawal seeking to know why the government was not disclosing details of the deal in which Congress has alleged that the price of the fighter jets being paid by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is higher than what was finalised by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in a previous deal.

"As per Article 10 of the Inter-Governmental Agreement between Governments of India and France on the purchase of Rafale aircraft, the protection of the classified information and material exchanged under IGA is governed by the provisions of the Security Agreement signed between Government of France and Government of India in 2008," she said.