The agreement signed in September was threatened by a competing bid from the United States.
The French Ministry of Defense was informed that the agreement signed with Greece had been initialed a few days ago.
An anonymous source in the Greek Ministry of Defense said that “the agreement is working and moving forward”.
The US State Department said on Friday it had confirmed the potential for the sale of naval frigates to Greece in competition with an agreement announced between France and Greece in September.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has announced that it has approved the possible sale of four Lockheed Martin combat frigates worth $ 6.9 billion (€ 6.1 billion) to Greece.
This statement suggested that France was facing new threats from the sale of its armaments. In September, the United States signed a nuclear submarine agreement with Australia, breaking an agreement to sell French submarines to Australia, which worsened Paris’ relations with Washington and Canberra.
France withdrew its ambassadors from the United States and Australia and called the contract an “allied backstroke” because it withdrew billions of euros from an agreement to purchase conventional French submarines in favor of US nuclear submarines.
At the end of September, French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kirjax Micotakis signed a memorandum on a new strategic partnership on security and defense.
This means, among other things, that Greece will buy three French frigates to be built by the Naval Group. Micotakis revealed that the agreement provides for the possibility for Greece to purchase a fourth warship. The contract for the purchase of the Belharra warships amounts to three billion euros.
The French ships Naval Group will supply the Greek navy in 2025 and 2026.
This deal between France and Greece requires the two parties to reach a final agreement by the end of this year.
The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Friday approved a $ 2.5 billion Lockheed program to modernize Greece’s MEKO-class frigate, including the addition and modernization of weapons systems and electronics.
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