While it has not sparked new calls for “freedom fries”, France’s sale of cutting-edge warships to Russia amid tensions over Ukraine is not going down well with its Western allies. FRANCE 24 takes a closer look at the unsavoury military contract.
The United States last week repeated it was “concerned” that Paris was going ahead with its planned delivery of two Mistral warships to Moscow, even as the EU imposed new sanction on Russian leaders for their alleged meddling in Ukraine.
“We have regularly and consistently expressed our concerns about this sale even before the latest Russian action and we will continue to do so," the US Assistant Secretary for Europe Victoria Nuland told US lawmakers on Thursday.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius will likely hear similar complaints as he wraps up his visit to the United States on Tuesday, but so far French leaders have resisted pressure to sink their warship agreement with Russia, France 24 reports.