Comment by alephnerd
8 hours ago
France hasn't bought Israeli weapons systems and vice versa for years, so it's just a quick populist win with 0 practical implications either way.
That said, French and Israeli vendors like Thales, IAI, Dassault, Rafael, Elbit, etc still collaborate closely becuase they are both OEMs, vendors, and JV partners in Indian defense deals that integrate both into Indian weapons systems - especially as both are integrated (along with Russian and indigenous weapons systems) with what is become Indians version of the Iron and Steel dome [0][1]. Vietnam is mandating the same thing as part of their 2045 Drone manufacturing strategy [2].
And both MIC ecosystems still collaborate together on defense deals back in Armenia, Cyprus, and Greece.
Most countries that historically had a Soviet/Russian kit are now mandating French+Israeli interoperability becuase of India's success at using it to replace older Soviet or Russian systems where possible.
[0] - https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/news-centre/press-releases/th...
[1] - https://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/64841
[2] - https://www.intelligenceonline.fr/asie-pacifique/2026/03/02/...
I think there has been some low volume defense trade in both directions.
What some people seem to forget is that France and Israel also compete over some of the same defense deals. There was these incidents where France banned Israeli companies from some defense shows:
https://www.politico.eu/article/france-bans-israeli-companie...
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250616-france-blocks...
Yep, but the biggest customer and JV partner for both the French and Israeli MIC (India) ensures that they cooperate, as India has forced both to create JVs owned and operated by Indian SOEs and transfer IP and manufacturing capacity as a result.
And French and Israeli companies are fine with that - as can be seen by Thales [0], Safran [1] and Rafael (IL) [2] working on Indian JVs for India's Rafale [3] and Tejas [1] requirements.
It's cheap for French politicans to make pronouncements (and given how competitive the 2027 election is going to be, Macron has no choice but to resort to such populism in order to try and poach some amount of LFI voters to Renaissance/En Marche), but France Inc ignores it and carries on because business is more important.
It's the same reason why Dassault bluntly rejected German input on SCAF [4] and why France's Safran and Russia's UAC are working with India's HAL to indigenize the SJ-100 [5]. And now that the UAE has pulled out of Dassault's F5 program [6], they are even more dependent on India.
As I've mentioned before on HN, French and American business culture are very similar.
Even Vietnam is starting to turn the screws on France, especially now that En Marche's Stephanié Do has now become a lobbyist [7] for FPT's defense arm [8] which is partially owned by Vietnam's KGB (the MPS/BCA).
It's the same kind of arm-twisting China used in the 1980s-2000s and 1990s-2010s respectively to force Israel [9] and Russia [10][11] to transfer IP for China's J-XX program, except both India and Vietnam are applying such arm-twisting on France in addition to Israel and Russia.
And Macron and all the other centrists politicans cannot do anything against Dassault, Thales, etc lest they switch to supporting Bardella and RN like Bolloré [12] and Stérin [13] are doing. Macron himself is only in power because Arnault [14] and his son-in-law (and CEO of Scaleway) Xavier Niels [15].
[0] - https://www.asdnews.com/news/aerospace/2022/07/21/iai-select...
[1] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-25/india-to-...
[2] - https://gbp.com.sg/stories/rafael-eyes-ice-breaker-spike-lr2...
[3] - https://aviationweek.com/defense/aircraft-propulsion/dassaul...
[4] - https://aviationweek.com/defense/aircraft-propulsion/dassaul...
[5] - https://idrw.org/original-sam146-engine-likely-to-power-indi...
[6] - https://www.latribune.fr/article/defense-aerospatiale/defens...
[7] - https://www.tst-consulting.fr/
[8] - https://www.intelligenceonline.fr/asie-pacifique/2026/04/03/...
[9] - https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/12/world/israel-selling-chin...
[10] - https://thediplomat.com/2010/12/how-chinas-jets-threaten-rus...
[11] - https://asia.nikkei.com/politics/international-relations/rus...
[12] - https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/culture-et-idees/dossier/la...
[13] - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/22/world/europe/pierre-eduoa...
[14] - https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2023/08/07/how-be...
[15] - https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2022/07/10/u...