Rafale Deal: ‘We chose Ambani by ourselves… I don’t lie’ says Dassault CEO Eric Trappier

“I don’t lie. The truth I declared before and the statements I made are true. I don’t have a reputation of lying. In my position as CEO, you don’t lie. We chose (Anil) Ambani by ourselves. We are also looking at other partners. We already have 30 partners other than Reliance,”said Eric Trappier, CEO of Dassault Aviation on Tuesday, November 13, in an interview to ANI.

He reiterated that his company had chosen Reliance as an offset partner, and denied allegations of corruption in the Rafale jet deal with India saying it was a “clean deal”. He added that the price in the contract for 36 aircraft was brought down by 9% after government-to-government negotiations.

In response to a question on Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s allegations that Dassault paid ₹284 crore in alleged “kickbacks” to a Reliance firm to purchase land near an airfield in Nagpur, Trappier added, “I am sad to hear that. We have had a long experience with the Congress.”

On allegations of corruption in the Rafale deal, Trappier said, “I don’t have a reputation of lying. In my position as CEO, you don’t lie.”

Our first deal was with India in 1953 was with Nehru, later other PMs. We are working with India, for Indian forces. We are not working for any party, we are supplying strategic products to IAF and the Indian government. That’s what is most important,” Trappier said.

On the price negotiated in the deal, he said, “Price of 36 was exactly the same when you compare with 18 flyaway. 36 is the double of 18. So as far as I was concerned, it should have been double the price. But because it was government to government, there was negotiation, I had to decrease price by 9%.”

Trappier said a ₹800 crore joint venture between Dassault and Reliance was created last year, as part of the companies’ 2012 agreement. “We are not putting the money in Reliance. The money is going into the JV (Dassault-Reliance). Shares in the JV are 49% for Dassault and 51% for Reliance,” he added.