IAF clarifies on guarantees

No sovereign guarantee in Russian S-400 deal either, say senior officers
In the backdrop of revelations that government had waived guarantees and anti-corruption clauses for France in the Rafale fighter jet deal, senior Indian Air Force (IAF) officers said there were no such pacts even in deals with Russia and there are flexibilities offered in procurement procedures for Inter-Governmental Agreements (IGA). “There is no sovereign guarantee or integrity pact with the Russians for the S-400 deal,” Air Marshal V.R. Chaudhari, Deputy Chief of Air Staff, said on Tuesday. Responding to questions, Vice-Chief of IAF Air Marshal Anil Khosla stated that as far as government-to-government contracts are concerned, they are unique from government to government and do vary and the Defence Procurement Procedure has “given us some flexibility on these issues.” “We had lot of acquisitions with the Russians and the Americans earlier so the process of government-to-government agreements with the Russians and Americans are generally already pretty streamlined or evolved,” he said. He added that with other countries, the procedures may not have been evolved because it was being done for the first time or had just been initiated. Another senior officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said these clauses have not been there in any IGA in the last three decades. However, IGAs with all these countries are different. With Russia, where all defence companies are state-owned, deals are signed with their State Corporation which does away with the need for a sovereign guarantee. With the U.S., IGAs are through the Foreign Military Sales route of the Pentagon and there are no separate agreements with the U.S. industry which would warrant a sovereign guarantee. In the Rafale deal, while the agreement is through an IGA with the French government, the supply protocols have been signed with the French industry.

Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/iaf-clarifies-on-guarantees/article26254240.ece

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