PARIS \u2014\u00a0French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian talked about the Rafale fighter jet but did not pitch the Mistral helicopter carrier in meetings in Malaysia with his counterpart, Hishammuddin Hussein, a defense official here said Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Le Drian has not visited India on his way back to France, the official said. A visit to India had been planned, French website La Tribune had reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The minister talked about the Rafale offer” in Malaysia, the official said. “The Mistral was not part of the discussion.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Le Drian flew into a Malaysian airbase Aug. 31<\/span>\u00a0on Monday with a high-level parliamentary and industry team, dubbed the French export team, and went on to meet Prime Minister Najib Razak and Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Le Drian and Hishammuddin took part in a meeting of the French-Malaysian Joint Defense Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Malaysia is looking at the Dassault Rafale and affordability is a key issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s too soon to announce anything about it,” Hishammuddin told a joint news conference with Le Drian in Kuala Lumpur, Reuters reported. “It’s part and parcel of the industry and it’s a proposal we look at, and I have been very transparent with the Malaysian public that it’s a question of affordability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We talked about the Rafale, but not the Mistral,” Hishammuddin said, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Boeing F\/A-18, Saab Gripen and Eurofighter Typhoon are also under review in the Malaysian tender for 18 fighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A selection will likely be made in 2018 as there are financial difficulties, defense specialists said. Malaysia has been hit by lower oil prices and commodities, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Malaysian visit “went very well,” the French defense\u00a0official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n France is looking to resell two Mistral warships, following a negotiated cancellation of their \u20ac1.2 billion sale to Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n India has said it would buy 36 Rafales off the shelf, prompting Dassault hopes that \u00a0an order could be signed before the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Email: ptran@defensenews.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian talked about the Rafale fighter jet but did not pitch the Mistral helicopter carrier in meetings in Malaysia with his counterpart, Hishammuddin Hussein, a Paris defense official said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":60014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[464],"class_list":["post-27855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"HWXX4NGRP5BLJJCHU2FDK3SO7M","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2015\/09\/01\/le-drian-talks-rafale-but-not-mistral-in-malaysia\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n