France agrees to sell Russia advanced warship

[February 08, 2010]  PARIS (AP) -- France has agreed to sell Russia an advanced amphibious warship and is considering a Russian request for three more, French defense officials said Monday. It would be the first major arms deal between Russia and a NATO member.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy approved the sale of one Mistral assault ship after months of discussions, but then Russian naval officials submitted a request for three more, said Jacques de Lajugie, head of international development at the French arms agency DGA.

"We are in the process of examining" this new request, de Lajugie said at a news conference, predicting a decision in the coming weeks. He said the new request came not at the "political level" but from the general staff of the Russian Navy.

Among outstanding questions in the deal are where the Mistral would be built, de Lajugie said. No details about price were released.

Possessing a Mistral, which can carry 16 helicopters, would significantly increase the Russian military's capability to mount quick offensives. France sent a Mistral, which weighs 23,700 tons (21,500 metric tons) and is 980 feet (299 meters) long, to visit St. Petersburg last year in a clear sign of interest in a potential sale.

NATO members and Russia have had some small, country-to-country technology deals in the past but this would be the first sale of a major piece of equipment by a NATO nation to Moscow.

The prospect of the deal has alarmed some ex-Soviet countries.

"I believe that it's not a good idea to sell such ship to a country that has occupied another nation's territory," Temur Yakobashvili, a Georgian cabinet minister for reintegration who is in charge of issues related to separatist regions, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview after the French announcement.

The Mistral can anchor in coastal waters and deploy troops on land, a capacity the Russian navy now lacks. Russia's navy chief said last year that a ship like the Mistral would have allowed the Russian navy to mount a much more efficient action in the Black Sea during the Georgia-Russia war. He said the French ship would take just 40 minutes to do the job that the Russian Black Sea Fleet vessels did in 26 hours.

Russia's Interfax news agency had quoted naval first deputy chief of staff Vice Adm. Oleg Burtsev as saying the deal "is unlikely to happen in February or March this year, but work on the matter is continuing."

President Dmitry Medvedev visits France in March. Russia has been looking at similar ships made in Spain and the Netherlands.

[Associated Press; By JAMEY KEATEN]

Associated Press writer Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili in Tbilisi, Georgia, contributed to this report.

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