Cairo: Egypt is in talks with France to buy two more naval corvettes, a French diplomat said yesterday, as Paris’s Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Cairo in an African tour.
French shipbuilder DCNS had already signed a contract estimated at $1.1bn to supply four Gowind-class corvettes to Egypt, which also became the first country to purchase French Rafale jets.
Le Drian, whose government has developed close ties with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, met the leader and his defence minister yesterday morning.
“There is a bid for two more corvettes; the discussions are ongoing,” the source told AFP after the meetings.
The talks also touched on Libya, where Egypt had conducted air strikes on Islamist militants and pushed for intervention amid a slide into chaos in the neighbouring country.
“Overall on Libya what we can say is that during the meeting we underlined our support for the mediation by Bernardino Leon,” the source said, referring to the UN mediator between Libya’s rival governments.
The diplomat said the ball was now in the court of the formerly elected parliament, the General National Congress, to accept a Leon-mediated deal with the internationally recognised government in the east.
“The responsibility lies there to move forward on the unity government,” he said.
Le Drian’s visit to Cairo came days after Egypt took delivery of three of the 24 Rafale fighters it has bought from France in a ¤5.2bn deal.
Egypt bought the jets to boost its military capability in the face of an unstable Libya to the west and the threat posed by the Islamic State group in the Sinai Peninsula. Egyptian pilots had flown the Rafales from France to Egypt after receiving training to pilot the advanced jets.
Le Drian discussed further training for the Egyptian navy in his talks yesterday, Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab’s office said. AFP
