“Green light” from the State Department for the possible sale of four frigates in Greece
The US government gave the green light to the possible sale of four frigates in Greece on Friday, entering into competition with France, which in September concluded a preliminary agreement for the sale of three frigates in Greek Navy.
In a press release he published, the State Department said it approved the potential sale of the four frigates and their equipment, valued at $ 6.9 billion, before being completed three months after the signing in Paris by French President Emanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis similar agreement, which remains to be finalized. Washington also approved possible contract for the modernization of the four Greek frigates of class MEKO, estimated at $ 2.5 billion. The announcement clarifies that the contract will be concluded “with the winner of an international tender” of the Greek Armed Forces for the modernization of its equipment, implying that the agreement announced on September 28 by the leaders of France and Greece is not final. based on France-Greece agreement, which the French presidency had then presented as almost a consolation for the submarine fiasco it was to supply to Australia, there should be three Bellara frigates in France, named after the version of these ships being exported by Naval Group. , and will be delivered to the Greek Navy in 2025 and 2026. There is a clause for the possible construction of a fourth frigate.
The amount of the bilateral agreement, which must be signed “by the end of the year”, is “in the order of three billion euros”, the French Ministry of Defense had clarified. In addition to the ships, the French manufacturer of missile MBDA is also expected to supply their weapons (Aster anti-aircraft missiles, Exocet surface-to-air missiles, torpedoes) and support for three years.
In September, the United States announced a tripartite security agreement in the Indo-Pacific region, which includes the supply of nuclear-powered submarines to Canberra. This agreement, which was baptized AUKUS, also marked the cancellation of the contract signed by Paris and Canberra for the supply of a fleet of French conventional submarines worth tens of billions of euros to the Australian Navy, causing outrage in France.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
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