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New Delhi: The French Navy on Sunday firmly rejected reports circulating in Pakistani media suggesting that a French commander had validated Pakistan’s air superiority over India during the May 2025 confrontation and confirmed the loss of Rafale jets. The Navy dismissed the coverage as “extensive misinformation.”
Pakistani news outlet Geo TV had carried a report alleging that French commander Captain Jaquis Launay endorsed Pakistan’s dominance in the aerial exchange during Operation Sindoor. The article further asserted that the Pakistan Air Force was “better prepared” and that the Rafale fighter was downed due to factors unrelated to the technological edge of China-supplied J-10C jets.
Responding to the claims, the French Navy labelled the report “fake news,” stating, “These statements were attributed to Captain Launay who never gave his consent for any form of publication. The article contains extensive misinformation and disinformation.”
The controversy triggered strong reactions on social media, with several users accusing the Pakistani press of spreading anti-India narratives.
BJP leader Amit Malviya criticised the incident, calling it an example of Pakistan’s “desperate misinformation machinery.”
“The French Navy has called out Pakistan’s Geo TV and its correspondent Hamid Mir for spreading “misinformation and disinformation.” In his report, Hamid Mir peddled the same old, fabricated claims about Rafales and the so-called May conflict and has now been publicly exposed. When official institutions start debunking their propaganda, you know how desperate Pakistan’s misinformation machinery has become,” he wrote.
The dispute comes against the backdrop of India’s May military response to the Pahalgam terror attack, which left 26 civilians dead. The swift retaliatory move, known as Operation Sindoor, inflicted major losses on Pakistani forces before both countries agreed to a ceasefire at Islamabad’s request.
