It is behind in the sense that if tomorrow the US and China place an export ban on their models all we're left with are Mistral's ones.

They are not bad, and they have made huge progress, but you're still one year behind if not more.

May matter less and less as time progresses, or it may matter more if research further speeds up.

Honestly I wish capitalism and globalization kept working as they did for decades, but since more than a decade we're reverting to inefficient protectionist steps, one after the other.