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Greece has signed a contract with France to buy three new frigates, with an choice to purchase a fourth vessel sooner or later, as Paris makes an attempt to get well its losses from a serious submarine contract with Australia.
At a information convention on Tuesday along with his Greek counterpart, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, French President Emmanuel Macron praised the pact and its wider advantages for the European continent.
“It contributes to European safety, to the strengthening of Europe’s strategic autonomy and sovereignty, and thus to worldwide peace and safety,” Macron stated.
The Athens-Paris alliance, which permits Greece to buy three frigates from France, and a fourth elective, was hailed by Mitsotakis as binding the 2 international locations collectively “for many years.”
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Greece’s PM, nevertheless, made it clear that the deal wouldn’t spoil Greek-US relations, nor hinder a deal it has below dialogue with Washington. “France stood by us throughout troublesome occasions in the summertime of 2020,” Mitsotakis defined, referring to tensions with Turkey within the Aegean Sea.
The settlement, stated by some French media sources to be price as much as €5 billion ($5.86 billion), nevertheless, is merely a dent within the ditched multi-billion-euro deal France’s Naval Group had with Australia.
Nearly two weeks in the past, Washington, London, and Canberra introduced that they might mix forces below a brand new pact, dubbed AUKUS, to offer Australia with nuclear-powered, however conventionally armed submarines. Based on the three nations, the initiative is devoted to a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” a transfer that seems to counter China’s affect within the area.
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The brand new alliance soured relations between France and the three AUKUS companions. Within the wake of the deal, French International Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described Canberra’s ditching of the settlement as a “stab within the again,” which broke the “relationship of belief with Australia.” He additionally stated that such motion “isn’t carried out between allies.”
Other than vocal condemnation of the pact, Paris recalled its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra for consultations. It additionally symbolically canceled its celebrations for the Battle of the Capes, a 1781 French naval victory over the British that helped America achieve its independence.
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