Greece will buy three frigates from France, Athens confirmed on Saturday, cutting short a possible new diplomatic-military imbroglio between France and the United States after the fall crisis over a contract for submarines to Australia.
“The Greco-French agreement is in force and will be continued.
It was done at the highest level possible.
The Greek Prime Minister himself announced it, ”assured a source within the Greek Ministry of Defense, after similar statements from the French Ministry of the Armed Forces.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis concluded with great fanfare, on September 28 at the Elysee Palace, this contract of some three billion euros supposed to illustrate the strengthening of defense and European sovereignty, dear to France.
But the United States stirred up trouble on Friday by announcing that it had given the green light to a possible sale to Greece of four frigates, in competition with that of Paris.
Specter of a new crisis
This announcement briefly raised the specter of a new crisis between Paris and Washington after that of the submarines. In September, the United States concluded a security partnership (AUKUS) with Australia and the United Kingdom which torpedoed the sale of 12 French submarines - described as the "contract of the century" - for more than 30 billion dollars. euros to the Australian Navy.
Paris quickly cleared the field on Saturday, explaining that the sale of frigates to Greece was set in stone, the American offer lapsed and that Washington had done nothing behind its back. “Since we have been in discussion with the Greeks, the American offer is no longer on the table. We also signed the contract with the Greeks. It was initialed a few days ago, ”said the French Ministry of the Armed Forces. The French government also underlined that it had been informed this time before the American announcement, where it had discovered almost directly that of the AUKUS alliance.
"They wrote to us, told us" in the name of our good relations, following the AUKUS problem, we are warning you "", we told the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
"There is no inclination (on their part) to go further," assured Paris.
"What happened there was just the result of an administrative process (of offer) that it was apparently complicated for them to stop from an administrative point of view."
Three, maybe four frigates
In addition to the possible sale of new buildings, the United States also approved the modernization of the Greek frigates of the MEKO class, for an amount estimated at 2.5 billion dollars. In both cases, the contract "will be awarded to the winner of an international tender" for the modernization of the Greek Navy, then said the US State Department. According to the Franco-Greek agreement, three defense and intervention frigates (called Belharra for export) must be built in France by Naval Group, in Lorient, to be delivered to the Greek Navy in 2025 and 2026. The prior agreement also covers an optional fourth frigate.
The AUKUS agreement includes the delivery of nuclear powered submarines to Canberra.
Australia thus broke its contract with France for the delivery of conventional submarines, angering Paris.
France then denounced a "blow in the back" of its partners and recalled its ambassadors in the United States and Australia.
US President Joe Biden has since admitted that the United States could have communicated better with its longtime ally.
And at the end of October in Rome, he tried to turn the page during a reconciliation meeting with the French president.
The two heads of state then announced their intention to launch "a strategic dialogue on military trade", in particular on export authorizations.
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Armament
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United States
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