French President François Hollande will decide in November whether France will go ahead with a delivery of the Mistral-class helicopter carrier to Russia, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Tuesday.
Sources have said previously that a decision was expected in either late October or early November.
“In early September, the president said that if the political conditions did not change, he could not imagine authorizing a delivery,” Le Drian told journalists at the Euronaval trade show.
“He would decide when it was time for delivery. It will be in November,” he said.
Asked about France’s reliability and the Mistral sale to Russia, Le Drian said, “I have never made any forecast on the president’s decision.”
Hollande has set the conditions as the ceasefire being observed in Ukraine and a political settlement between Kiev and Moscow.
In Le Drian’s speech to the foreign delegations at the official opening of the exhibition, the minister spoke of France as a “reliable partner,” citing the 34 years of support and maintenance for warships sold in 1980 to Saudi Arabia under the Sawari export program.
On arms exports for 2014, Le Drian said sales would be similar to the €6.87 billion (US $8.7 billion) reached in 2013, up almost 43 percent from the previous year.
“I think we will be close to that again this year,” he said. “That shows our companies’ performance, technological excellence, the French performance,” he said. “That does not happen without competition, without a contest. The figures show the results are there.”
France agreed in 2011 to the €1.2 billion sale of two Mistral class warships to Russia, with options for two more. The former two are named Vladivostok and Sevastopol. Following the crisis in the Ukraine and the deadly downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, Paris is under pressure from allies to cancel the Mistral handover.
But there is also domestic concern over jobs on the second vessel and potential damage to French reliability as a supplier in the world arms market.
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