An agreement by which the Israel Aircraft Industries will supply the Indian air force with three planes equipped with the early-warning Phalcon radar system is slated to be signed in January, Defense Ministry director general Amos Yaron told Haaretz yesterday.
Yaron said the final conditions of the $1.1 billion deal were determined during discussions he held in New Delhi earlier this week. In the next few weeks, he said, Indian and Israeli negotiating teams will formulate an agreement between the two countries, which will be the guarantors of the deal. The Israel Aircraft Industries will receive advance payment of about $350 million after the deal is signed.
Yaron met with Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes and, speaking on behalf of Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, invited him to visit Israel.
In addition, Israel and India signed a separate agreement yesterday to launch the Israeli ultraviolet-imaging telescope TAUVEX into space aboard an Indian satellite for scientific purposes.
Minister of Science and Technology Eliezer Sandberg and the director of Israel’s space agency, Avi Har Even, participated in the signing ceremony in India.
Indian representatives said during separate discussions that attempts to calm relations with Pakistan are under way.
A delegation of officials from Indian security industries is due to arrive here in the next few weeks to search for new areas of cooperation with Israel, Yaron said.
Israel exported more than $400 million worth of security-related products to India in 2003, and this amount is expected to rise to about $1 billion next year.
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December 26, 2003 at 3:11 am