Germany disappointed over India cancelling aircraft tender

Ahead of the visit of its President Horst Koehler here, Germany today voiced disappointment over India's "nasty surprise" of cancelling a tender for multi-role tanker aircraft for the Air Force for which European consortium EADS was a contender.

"It came as a little bit of a nasty surprise for us and very disappointing — that it was rejected at the political level," German Ambassador Thomas Matussek told reporters here.

India had cancelled a tender to buy six mid-air refuelling aircraft for fighter jets in which the EADS Airbus 330 MRTT was the top contender.

"This rejection was not explained to us in detail. It appears that quality, performance of the system, state of the technology, reliability — just to name a few — were not exactly the criteria. The selection was done only on the label price as it stands," Matussek said.

His remarks come ahead of Koehler's week-long visit to India beginning Monday during which the two countries are expected to further enhance and deepen their strategic partnership.

"The President wants to give a signal that we want to further enhance and deepen our strategic partnership with India," the envoy said.

Koehler will meet President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other leaders here on Tuesday and meet business leaders in Mumbai.