Two disparate events marked the month. One, the first batch of Rafale fighters which had arrived in India in July, were formally inducted in a suitably dazzling ceremony at Air Force station Ambala on September 10. Present at the ceremony, along with the who’s who of the Indian Air Force (IAF) were defence minister Rajnath Singh, French defence minister Florence Parly and the chairperson of Dassault Aviation Eric Trappier. Immediately, the media went to town saying that China must behave, now that India has got the Rafales.
In the second event of the month, China refused to behave. Before the Rafale induction ceremony, defence minister Singh had gone to Russia on September 4-5 to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s defence ministers’ meeting. He once again apprised his Russian counterpart Gen. Sergey Shoigu of the Ladakh crisis and had urged for greater Russian support. Also, on the agenda was Russian equipment and product support. India-Russia also finalised the agreement for the manufacture of AK-203 rifles in India under a joint venture. Given all this, it was believed that Russia would play the honest broker in the crisis with China.