France on Tuesday inked a lucrative agreement to sell four Mistral warships to Moscow, with two to be built in Russia, in a move bitterly opposed by ex-Soviet states in the Baltics.
The deal for the amphibious landing ships will be the first sale to Russia of such technology by a Nato country. France's Nato allies - in particular Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - have expressed concern about arming Russia with modern Western weaponry. Leaked diplomatic cables showed that US Defence Secretary Robert Gates also raised Washington's concerns while on a visit to Paris last year.
The deal was announced while President Nicolas Sarkozy was visiting the STX naval shipyards in the western French port of Saint-Nazaire where the vessels will be built in partnership with France's state-owned military contractor DCNS.