PARIS (Reuters) – France and Qatar have a common will to develop a defence partnership that builds on the existing cooperation with Rafale fighter jets, a French defence ministry source said on Tuesday, days after the minister visited Doha to cement military ties.
Qatar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The source declined to confirm a report from economic daily La Tribune newspaper on Tuesday that Doha wanted to buy 24 extra Dassault-made planesPA> and possibly upgrade its existing fleet with the latest technologies. La Tribune did not identify its sources.
Sebastien Lecornu held talks with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in Qatar last week.
The French source said the feeling was that Doha was satisfied with its Rafale purchase and their impression was that there was a will to take the partnership further.
That could mean buying new planes and upgrading the existing fleet, the source said.
The two countries sealed an initial $7 billion (6.34 billion euros) 24 Rafale deal in 2015 before Qatar ordered a further 12 in 2017.
In a statement on Friday, the French Defence Ministry said the discussions in Qatar had “focused on strengthening the Franco-Qatari strategic partnership, founded on diplomatic, operation and industrial cooperation”.
India last week approved the purchase of 26 Rafales, the latest in a string of contracts for Dassault, which 18 months ago received an order for 80 units from the United Arab Emirates.
(This story has been corrected to say that the desire is to develop partnership, in headline and paragraph 1; and also clarifies the French source’s comments in paragraph 5)
(1 euro = $1.1043)
(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Alison Williams)
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