Paris. December 11. INTERFAX - Paris and Athens have signed a contract providing for the construction of three frigates for the Greek Navy in France, the Figaro newspaper reported on Saturday.
The French Ministry of Defense confirmed that the contract with Greece "has just been signed." The parties reached a preliminary agreement on frigates back in September 2021.
The contract provides for the construction by Naval Group of three Belharra frigates. They are planned to be transferred to the Greek Navy in 2025-2026. In addition, the agreement provides for the possibility of building a fourth frigate in the future.
The French media closely followed this deal, as earlier this week the United States expressed readiness to supply frigates to Greece. If Athens had agreed to the American proposal, it would have been the second such incident between France and the United States: in the fall of 2021, Australia refused a very large contract already concluded with Paris for the construction of submarines for the Australian Navy. Instead, Canberra chose to make a deal with the US. This caused a serious deterioration in relations between Paris and Washington. The French side believes that the United States, even without warning in advance about its plans for Australia, did not behave like allies.
