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1n You people are hell bent on destroying my glorious afternoon with this beautiful bottle of italian wine because of #Rafale. Guess what I'd prefer 👉🏽 or 👈🏽 . So on the subject of sovereign guarantees. 1) sovereign guarantees cost money, they don't come for free 2) the French.. 
2n were objecting to giving sovereign guarantees on the basis of 2a Precedent: that giving a sovereign guarantees on one would mean giving sovereign guarantees on a whole host of other purchases, especially nuclear (and aspect of this deal I've stressed repeatedly) where ..
3n extraneous circumstances may hold France in violation of NPT obligations 2b EU, OECD & International anti trust laws means that a sovereign guarantee of 7 billion euros plus would be 80% of the market capitalisation of Dassault which is valued at 10 billion. This means...
4n 3) France would have to change national legislation and run up against a host of international legislation, mostly because the military and civil aviation businesses of Dassault are intertwined. The problem with this that if India asks for an India Specific exception......
5n France would (and indeed I am informed they did) ask for an India Specific exemption to the Indian Nuclear Liability bill. This is why we need to understand that 4) this was a maximalist negotiating position that we had to back down on, part of any negotiating process & 5)....
6n the ramifications were interdepartmental - affecting trade, international treaty obligations for both countries & especially nuclear and NPT issues for both countries. These issues fall OUTSIDE the purvey of the MoD. 6) The problem now is that N Ram, being clueless about...
7n everything outside cricket, despite his delusions to the contrary, has disclosed the fact that India was as part of negotiations willing to back down on sovereign guarantees. This was something the MoD had wanted to use as a precedent with the French to strongarm others
8n on Nuclear issues (especially the US and other European countries that hold nuclear patents). Now thanks to N Ram our negotiating weakness vis-a-vis the French is in full public view and has consequences well beyond just #Rafale and defence.
