Air India on February 14 announced its plans to acquire 470 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing in deals potentially worth tens of billions of dollars. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have hailed Air India’s multi-billion dollar deal to buy planes from Airbus and Boeing.
During the video call with Macron, Modi described the agreement with Airbus as an important achievement for the bilateral strategic partnership and said, “Today, the India-France partnership is playing a direct role in ensuring international order and a stable and balanced multilateral system.”
Macron pointed to bilateral cooperation in areas such as space, cyber, defence, health and energy transition, and said, “Now, we have the historic opportunity to go much further, given the potential of India and the Indian people.” There is a “deep commitment” in France to provide state-of-the-art and efficient technologies to India, and be part of the “Make in India” strategy, he said.
Later, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and UK Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch also welcomed the deal. Joe Biden underlined how the Air India-Boeing deal will support over one million American jobs across 44 states, and help Air India meet growing demands for air transportation in India.
Modi invited Boeing and other US companies to make use of opportunities arising from India’s expanding civil aviation sector. The two leaders further agreed to bolster people-to-people and to remain in contact to ensure the success of India’s G20 presidency.
