Hindistan'ın Savunma Sanayi İş Birliği Arayışlarında Fransa'nın Yeri ve Önemi

The aim of this study is to reveal the place and importance of France in India's defence industry cooperation. The most important factor in determining this issue is India's efforts to reduce its dependence on Russia in the defence industry. In line with this goal, India has been focusing on developing its defence cooperation with Western partners such as France, while developing its domestic defence industry. In this study, three main research questions are identified and their answers are sought. Firstly, what is the position of France in India's defence industry? Second, which products are prominent in France's arms sales to India? Thirdly, can India replace Russia with France in the field of defence? The main argument behind these questions is the failure of Western actors to provide India with sufficient contribution in defence cooperation and to replace Russia in this sense. Indeed, India is the world's largest arms importer and its major partners in the defence industry are Russia, France and the United States. In recent years, India has developed new partnerships with France in key defence items, leading to the questioning of Russia's role in the nightmare. Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine War, Moscow has been struggling to find new arms customers. The situation in Russia is seen as an opportunity by major arms manufacturers such as France to increase their sales to India. Indeed, India is France's largest partner in arms sales. The most important factor in the development of bilateral military relations is the common interests in the Indo-Pacific. Acting with the goal of a free and open Indo-Pacific, the two countries have started to improve their cooperation in defence items. France usually sells helicopter engines, jet turbines, turboshafts and missiles to India. Then, the sales of Mirage-2000, the fourth generation fighter aircraft, are noteworthy. It is unlikely that France will be able to replace Russia in India's defence industry in the short and medium term. India, which made a large number of purchases during the Soviet Union and integrated almost its entire weapons inventory into Russia, is trying to reduce this dependence primarily through domestic production. Therefore, instead of making more purchases from France, it prefers joint production within the scope of the "Make in India" vision. However, it will continue to make purchases from Russia and France in the short and medium term for urgent needs such as fighter jets and submarines.