The defense ministries of France and Greece have both confirmed that a competing offer from the US will have no impact on an already “signed” and “final” multibillion deal to purchase three French Belharra frigates.
France’s armed forces ministry stated on Saturday that a defense contract with Athens was already “initialled a few days ago,” before the US State Department announced the approval of the potential sale of American frigates.
Greece’s Defense Ministry also confirmed that since the deal with Paris was “final,” since it had been negotiated at the “highest level possible” and “personally announced” by the Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The contracts are expected to be ratified by the Parliament “soon.”
The US Defence Security Cooperation Agency said on Friday it had approved the sale for $6.9 billion of four Lockheed Martin combat frigates, and a separate $2.5 billion program to upgrade Greece’s MEKO class frigates.
The announcement triggered some concerns over the Athens-Paris agreement, especially after a long-existing submarine building “deal of the century” between France and Australia was abruptly tanked by a bombshell AUKUS pact in September. Outraged Paris accused Washington and Canberra of “stab in the back” without any prior warning, while just two weeks later Macron took the stage with the Greek PM to personally announce the sale of at least three French warships to Athens for around $3.5 billion, saying it was time to “stop being naive” while touting the deal as a sign of “Europe’s strategic autonomy and sovereignty.”
This time around, according to the French military, the US “had warned us that this announcement was going to come out” and that Americans allegedly had “no inclination to go further” with an actual sale of the frigates.
