PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus plans to strengthen its industrial presence in India, its chief government Guillaume Faury mentioned on Wednesday after assembly the nation’s prime minister.

“We are going to proceed to assist the expansion of civil aviation and deepen our industrial footprint in India,” Faury mentioned on Twitter alongside a photograph of his assembly with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He didn’t present additional particulars.

Faury’s feedback on industrial presence come as India turns into more and more concerned within the civilian provide chain.

A senior Boeing (NYSE:)Co official instructed ET Infra in September that India had proven resilience throughout the pandemic and that Boeing and different firms would rely extra on its suppliers.

The assembly between the world’s largest civil plane maker and the world’s quickest rising airline market chief additionally coincides with a doubtlessly large buy of planes from Air India, though trade sources mentioned that was not the primary goal of the go to.

Air India is at a complicated stage of negotiating a significant fleet renewal and enlargement beneath new proprietor Tata Group which trade sources say might contain 250 Airbus jets, of which solely 200-210 jets of the A320neo Household and greater than three dozen A350s.

Airbus additionally hopes to safe a brand new dwelling at Air India for six A350s initially destined for Russia’s Aeroflot, though it’s unclear whether or not these are included in the primary order.

Air India can be near a deal to purchase some 190 Boeing 737 MAXs and 30 of its 787 Dreamliners beneath the identical package deal of doubtless near 500 planes, Reuters reported final week. The deal might additionally contain a handful of bigger 777X jets.

After intense discussions over the previous week, the outlines of a package deal value tens of billions of {dollars} are rising, however the timing of any announcement stays unsure, the sources mentioned.

Negotiations on big-budget planes are often on the wire and may break down on the final minute over contractual particulars corresponding to deposits and inflation clauses, they warned.

Airbus declined to remark and Tata Group was not instantly obtainable for remark.

In October, Tata Group and Airbus introduced that they might manufacture the C-295 navy transport aircraft in India.

India, one of many largest importers of protection tools on the planet, has tried to cut back its dependence on international firms and improve native manufacturing. Solely the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd at present manufactures plane, primarily for the armed forces.