A top Israeli arms firm has confirmed that India cancelled a USD 500 million deal to develop Spike anti-tank guided missiles and expressed "regret" over the decision just ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first visit to the country. "It should be emphasised that the cancellation was made prior to the signing of the contract and despite Rafael's compliance with all the demands," the company said in a statement. "Rafael regrets the decision and remains committed to cooperating with the Indian Ministry of Defence and to its strategy of continuing to work in India, an important market, as it has for more than two decades, to provide India with the most advanced and innovative systems," it added. Also read Modi in Israel | Full text of the joint statement between India and IsraelAs per the original proposal, India had planned to acquire the ATGMs for the Army at a cost of USD 500 million. The Indian defence ministry has been strongly pushing for transfer of technology in procuring various weapons and other platforms from foreign defence majors as part of its broad policy initiative to encourage domestic defence industry.

Source: dna January 03, 2018 11:49 UTC