THE VACUUM: REPORT-Egypt buys French Mistrals, LEASES TO CHINA
Report: Egypt to buy French mistral ships and lease them to China
From Gertz’s Geostrat-Direct The two French-made helicopter carriers, known as the Mistral ships, will be sold to Egypt but they may well be leased to China, reports Russian news service Russia Today in a detailed news analysis published on Sept. 24. The two Mistral ships were built for Russia at a price tag of $1.7 billion. On the eve of delivery, however, Russia annexed Crimea and got itself heavily involved in the Ukrainian turmoil.
France joined the international sanctions led by the U.S. to punish Russia’s behavior in Ukraine. As a result, President Francois Hollande decided to cancel the delivery, paying back Russia’s deposit. But the two ships had to be bought by someone else as the French navy itself has reached capacity for such vessels. China has been coveting the Mistrals for years most because the ship could match Japanese Izumo-class helicopter carriers. In April, a French naval flotilla led by another Mistral-class vessel currently in service with the French navy arrived in Shanghai and the PLA navy conducted a thorough inspection of the ship, feeding a widely spread rumor of Chinese purchase of the two new Mistral vessels originally built to Russia. But it would be difficult for France to make the sale to Beijing because of a two and half decades old arms embargo against China imposed soon after the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre by the PLA. When France and Russia settled the dispute by mutually agreeing to cancel the delivery, Russia insisted that the two Mistrals could not be sold by France to any country conflicting with Russia’s national interest. Specifically, they could not be sold to any NATO member states, especially Poland and Turkey. Selling them to Egypt will not impact Russia directly and therefore will be allowed by Russia. If the two ships end up being operated by the Chinese navy, France will not be legally challenged or to blame for the transaction as France technically did not violate the NATO’s embargo.
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