Paris--French group Dassault Aviation is poised to sign a 6.3-billion-euro ($7-billion) deal with Qatar for 36 of its Rafale fighter jets, the presidency said Thursday, in the third foreign order this year.
Having struggled for years to sell any of its Rafale jets abroad, Dassault has recently scored several lucrative, high-profile contracts with Egypt, India, and now Qatar.
France's President Francois Hollande "spoke yesterday with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar... (who) confirmed his desire to acquire 24 Rafale fighter jets for his country," the Elysee said in a statement.
The agreement, which will be signed on May 4 in Doha in Hollande's presence, includes a firm order for 24 jets with an option on 12 other planes, sources close to the negotiations told AFP.
The contract is worth 6.3 billion euros, the French government said.
The deal with Qatar is a boost for Rafale's fortunes, and another victory for Hollande's government in exporting the French fighter plane after considerable efforts by his predecessors had come to naught.
Earlier this year, Egypt bought 24 Rafales in a 5.2-billion-euro ($5.8-billion) deal negotiated in just three months, prompting hopes in Paris that the agreement would act as a catalyst to unblock hoped-for sales to other countries.
India then followed suit this month by announcing the order of 36 Rafale jets during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to France.
The two sides had already been engaged in years of tortuous, exclusive negotiations for the sale of 126 Rafales, but these had been bogged down over cost and New Delhi's insistence on assembling a portion of the high-tech planes in India.
So India, whose airforce is in dire need of new jets to update its ageing fleet, placed an order for 36 planes while negotiations continue on finalising the initial 126-jet agreement.
AFP
