Defense Is France's New 21st-Century Luxury Good
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Bonjour et Bienvenue to the Paris Edition. I'm Bloomberg Opinion columnist Lionel Laurent. If you haven't yet, subscribe now to the Paris Edition newsletter.
The French-made Dassault Rafale fighter jet is not cheap – buying 26 of them will set you back around $7.4 billion, at least judging by India's purchase terms approved on April 9. Yet military gear is becoming a necessary form of luxury good in today's world, as the US pulls back from existing security commitments and China steps up military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.
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