The saga of the sale of two Mistral warships for months that plagues relations between France and Russia finally seems to know its epilogue. President François Hollande and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are indeed reached an agreement on non-delivery of the Mistral ships. The Elysee has announced, Wednesday, August 5 in the early evening that France will “full ownership and free disposal” of the two buildings, currently stationed in the French port of Saint Nazaire.
For its part, Russia will “exclusively and fully reimbursed the sums advanced under the contract” , the total amount reached 1.2 billion euros. The Russian equipment that were installed on the buildings will include restored. Russia said that the EUR 800 million it had paid advances had already been paid by France.
As for reconciliation between the two countries, Francois Hollande and Vladimir Putin “welcomed the friendly and open atmosphere of partnership that marked the negotiations” and “agreed on the fact that now this matter was closed” concludes statement from the Elysee. For its part, the Kremlin said considering the case of Mistral as “fully resolved” .
This agreement ends eight months of intense negotiations between Paris and Moscow, which had The French Presidency placed in an uncomfortable situation, torn between economic interests and its will to push Russia to change its position in the Ukrainian crisis.
France had suspended in November 2014, for indefinitely the delivery of two ships built in Saint-Nazaire. Westerners then accused Russia of supporting armed rebels who hold pro-Russian part of the eastern Ukraine, suspecting the same to have committed armed elements on the ground, that Moscow continues to deny despite the many published evidence supporting these suspicions
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Built in the shipyard STX, these warships versatile can carry helicopters, tanks or landing and welcome onboard staff or hospital barges. The manufacturer of Mistral, DCNS subsidiary to 35% of the equipment manufacturer Thales, had estimated in July to at least one million euros per month maintenance once the two helicopter carriers, pending a decision France and Russia.
The adaptation of Mistral for a replacement customer cost of several tens to several hundred million euros according to its needs, said the CEO of DCNS, Hervé Guillou , told reporters in February. Canada and Singapore, as well as Egypt, which has just acquired a frigate FREMM multimission corvettes and four Gowind, are cited as potential customers but DCNS has declined to comment on that.
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