For sale: two Mistral-class helicopter carriers worth €1.2bn. Good condition. Price negotiable.
France this week extricated itself from one of its trickier diplomatic binds after it finally agreed to break a contract with Russia over the sale of two 21,000 tonne warships. Now it is facing a new dilemma: what to do with them?
The two vessels, which can each hold 600 troops and 16 attack helicopters but cost millions of euros a month to keep at port, had been sold to Russia, which even sent sailors to western France to train on them. But tensions over the Ukraine crisis prompted France to halt delivery late last year under pressure from EU allies and Washington.