India buys French fighter jets, submarines as Modi visits Paris

India has signed a new multibillion-dollar deal with France, buying French fighter jets as Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Paris on a two-day trip.

India's Ministry of Defense said in a statement that the country plans to order 26 Rafale jets as well as three more Scorpene-class submarines, with the price and other terms of the purchase still under review.

Addressing a rousing crowd of Indians living in France on Thursday evening, Modi billed the agreement "a reflection of the unwavering friendship between India and France".

Despite different perspectives on the war in Ukraine and tensions over human rights in India, Western countries view Modi and India as a counterweight to China in Asia.

At a meeting with military leaders on Thursday evening, Macron called India "a strategic partner and a friend". 

US military seeks to turn India into logistics hub in anti-China bid: Report

The US intends to transform India into a major hub for maintenance and resupplying of its warships in the South Asia region as part of a military partnership pact aimed at countering China, a report says.

The naval version of the Rafale Dassault jets is intended for India's aircraft carrier, the INS Vikrant, which was commissioned last year.

India has already bought six Scorpene submarines, and the statement said an additional three ships "with higher indigenous content" will be built by Mazagon Dock shipbuilders near Mumbai, creating "significant employment opportunities in the domestic sector".

New Delhi has been expanding its armed forces, and the West sees an opportunity to replace Russia as a main supplier of weapons to the emerging economic powerhouse. 

New Delhi is one of the biggest buyers of French arms, with Modi announcing a landmark deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets during a trip to Paris in 2015, worth around 4.0 billion euros ($4.24 billion) at the time.

The deal is set to escalate tensions in the subcontinent where India is embroiled in territorial disputes with its neighbors, chiefly China and Pakistan.  

On Thursday, state-run China Media Group (CMG) said NATO is aggressively expanding its footprints in the Asia-Pacific region to besiege Beijing. 

"Under the command of the US, NATO has increasingly taken a hardline stance on China with the purpose of expanding its footprints in the Asia-Pacific region by labeling China as a ‘systemic challenge’ in complicity with the US geopolitical rivalry," it said in a commentary. 

CMG touched on "NATO's eastward expansion", saying the crisis in Ukraine is rooted in the policy.

"After the crisis broke out, the US pushed NATO members to send a raft of weapons to Ukraine, leading to heightened situations of the conflict," it said. 

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