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New Delhi: India is set to sign a $2.2 billion (Dh8.1 billion) deal, its biggest with the US, for eight long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, even as the Indian Navy chief opposed "intrusiveness" in the use of military hardware the country purchases.
Negotiations for the purchase of the Boeing-P8I aircraft are in the final stages and are likely to be wrapped up during Indian Navy chief Sureesh Mehta's visit to the US that began on Sunday.
The agreement for the purchase will be signed between the two governments in New Delhi later this year, official sources said.
The P8I, which is based on the Boeing-737 platform, has been specifically developed for the Indian Navy's requirements. The aircraft, which is still in the conception stage, is expected to fly by 2012.
Mehta's comments on "intrusiveness" came on the sidelines of an international seminar here on Saturday. "There are certain things we can't agree to. As a sovereign nation, we can't accept intrusiveness into our system, so there are some fundamental difficulty," said Mehta.
"The US may have this kind of end user agreements with everyone. But I don't believe in that. We pay for something and we get some technology."
"What I do with it, is my thing," the Navy chief added.
His remarks came after former US Pacific Command chief Dennis Blair said the India-US military relationship had "slowed down" because New Delhi had not signed three "very basic and routine" agreements.
These agreements are the Mutual Logistic Support Agreement, the Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement and the End Use Monitoring Agreement.
Extra expenses
"Because they are not signed, the Indian-American military relationship is slowed and there are extra expenses involved for India," said Blair.
The deal will be the second big-ticket purchase from the US a year after a $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) agreement inked in February for six Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules aircraft for the Indian Army's Special Forces.
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