/ world today news/ France could lose up to 250 million euros from the sale of the two Mistral ships to Egypt, whose original buyer was Russia, according to the French financial commission.
The loss could have been one billion euros if Egypt had not shown interest, which would have brought a budget deficit of 556.7 million euros.
“Excluding the deal with Egypt, France would have lost around 1.1 billion euros. If the deal with Egypt goes through, the loss could be reduced to 200-250 million euros,” the commission said in a statement to the French newspaper La Tribune.
Paris intends to sell the vessels to Egypt for 950 million euros, which includes the cost of training 400 Egyptian sailors in France. The Mistrals will be delivered in March 2016 after Egypt agreed to buy them at the beginning of the month.
The price is the same amount Paris paid Moscow as compensation for the failed deal. However, there is also a penalty clause in the contract if France does not deliver the ships on time. Thus, France will lose more than the official 250 million euros.
On Tuesday, a member of the foreign affairs committee in the French Senate admitted that France had rejected the Mistral deal with Russia because of external pressure from NATO.
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