India’s order of 36 French-made Rafale fighter jets has run into trouble with government officials struggling to agree sales terms, sources said, four months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervened to break a logjam in previous commercial negotiations. Two senior Indian defence officials told Reuters that both sides were wrangling over the unit price of the aircraft and a condition that planemaker Dassault Aviation invest a big percentage of the value of the multi-billion dollar contract in India.

According to sources the multi—billion dollar Rafale fighter jet contract with France has run into rough weather over a guarantee clause and steep rise in price with India making it clear that the ball is in France’s court as it looks at the option of buying more Russian Sukhoi—30 MKI warplanes as a back—up plan.

Now Military officials have warned of a major capability gap opening up with rivals China and Pakistan without new Western warplanes or if local defence contractors cannot build what the military needs in a timely manner.

But while forward movement is awaited in this regard, defence sources made it clear that the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to France and the fighter jet deal were two separate issues which cannot be linked, PTI reported.

“There are some issues which still persist because of which the final contract is pending for such a long time,” defence sources said when asked if the issues relating to pricing and the guarantee clause had been sorted out.