MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Indian choppers for Chile?

In single largest sale ever by the Indian Defence establishment to another country, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee left on Tuesday night for Chile to close a Rs 400-crore deal of about 30 indigenously-made Advanced Light Helicopters.

The Chilean government opted for the fleet of new Indian-made choppers rejecting contenders from the US and Europe.

Mukherjee will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, including Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) Vice Admiral Raman Puri, HAL chairman Ashok Baweja, OFB chairman P K Mishra, and BrahMos missile joint venture MD Dr Sivathanu Pillai.

The delegation will also discuss the possible sale of small arms, munitions and defence stores to Chile.

Last October, the government had sent the then IAF chief Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy with a Dhruv aerobatics team to convince the Chileans of the chopper's capabilities. "They were thoroughly impressed," the then air chief had said.

So far, the Indian aerospace industry has restricted itself to manufacturing components for global aviation majors. The first sale of an Indian aircraft was also an ALH Dhruv to the Royal Nepal Army two years ago.

After the deal with Chile is sealed, countries like Malaysia, Mauritius, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia are likely to place orders.

In Santiago, Mukherjee will meet his Chilean counterpart Jaime Ravinet and is scheduled to call on President Ricardo Lagos Escobar.

Mukherjee is the first Indian Defence Minister to visit Chile - the only other minister to visit was Ghulam Nabi Azad earlier this year. The other leaders to visit from India were former PM Indira Gandhi in 1968 and former President S.D. Sharma in 1995.

If the weather holds good, the Chilean government will fly Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee to its research and exploration base in Antarctica, by flying across the meeting point of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans directly below the Latin American continent.

Sources indicated the Minister would discuss possible cooperation in scientific research at the Chilean base, with a proposal to send teams of scientists and Indian meteorological instruments across later.