New Delhi: The deal for the purchase of 12 amphibious military aircraft from Japan is unlikely when Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe since the long-pending deal of the planes are not on the Indian Navy’s priority list with the Service facing a budget crunch.
“There is no doubt that the Japanese amphibious aircraft is a good product that the Indian Navy wants. But there is a priority list based on the budget constraints and, currently, the aircraft is not high on the priority list,” said Navy officials.
The Japanese prime minister will be in India for a three-day visit from December 15.
The aircraft can be used for search and rescue, surveillance as well as intelligence gathering.
On whether the Japanese government was looking at a re-worked financial deal for the aircraft, they said the Navy is yet to hear anything officially on the matter.
“If there is a new proposal, we can always look at it,” the officials said.
