Pakistani netizens are not letting the French President Emmanuel Macron praise the French-made Dassault Rafale on social media after he called on European countries to buy Rafale fighter aircraft for defence.
It should be highlighted that the French President Emmanuel Macron has been pushing for Europe to reduce its defence needs on the United States of America (USA).
Dassault Rafale remained a robust symbol of European strategic autonomy and self-reliance in defence platforms.
In his recent post on X, without explicitly calling for an end to European reliance on USA for its security, Macron posted an image showing the screen of a mobile phone with the Rafale flying. On the top was the word “mobile” and just below it was “Rafale is calling”, signalling a telephone call. Below the jet were two icons – the one on the left was a clock with the caption “Remind Me” and on the right was the speech icon with the word “Message”.
At the bottom of the photo was a green telephone receiver icon like the one visible on iPhone during call receiving with the message, “Secure our Europe.”
In the caption, he wrote, “European friends, you have a call”, during his visit to the Paris Airshow.
The moment was seized by Pakistani netizens who reminded the French President about the recent India-Pakistan war in which the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) shot down at least 6 Indian aircraft, including French Rafales.
PAF shooting down Indian Air Force’s Rafale jets on the night of May 6-7 made it the first official loss of Rafale aircraft in active air combat.
Needless to say, Pakistanis on social media made witty replies and comments trolling the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the French president for being tight-lipped about Rafale losses.
Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had revealed that PAF shot down Indian Rafale jets using its Chinese J-10C aircraft and PL-15 BVRAAM.
This was the first time in the history of aviation combat that Chinese-manufactured weapons were tested in a live, intense combat and brought excellent results.
