The United States intervened, but Paris and Athens were negotiating an arms deal

In the wake of massive diplomatic dissatisfaction between France and the United States over the mega arms deal with Australia, new anger over the arms deal with Greece has apparently been avoided. The French Defense Ministry announced on Saturday that Paris had signed an agreement with Athens to buy three French warships. An American offer to Greece is off the table. Athens confirmed that the agreement with Paris had already been signed.

The U.S. government on Friday approved a possible warship deal with Greece, surprisingly, in competition with the long-negotiated arms deal between France and Greece. The State Department in Washington has announced that it has tentatively approved the sale of four Lockheed Martin warships worth $ 6.9 billion and the modernization of Greek mecho warships by the Lockheed Group for $ 2.5 billion.

Ten weeks ago, Athens signed a letter with Paris to purchase similar French ships. As the United States announced a nuclear submarine deal with Australia in September, Washington’s approval of the rivalry was expected to explode, after which Canberra canceled its long-planned, multi-billion-dollar submarine deal with France. This in particular led to massive diplomatic tensions between Washington and Paris. France, meanwhile, withdrew its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra.

The Ministry of Defense announced in Paris that the United States had “warned” France this time about possible trade with Greece. The Franco-Greek arms deal includes the supply of three Belhorra warships for defense and intervention, built by a naval team in France and to be delivered to the Greek navy in 2025 and 2026.