France stands up for Mistral's sale to Russia

21.09.2010 French defense minister Herve Morin gave a press-conference after his meeting with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. He tried to dispel apprehensions of some NATO members as of potential sale of Mistral class landing ships to Russia.

Those countries consider that Russia's acquisition of the advanced heli-carriers could seriously disrupt the balance of strength and endanger the security of Russian neighbors; primarily, Georgia's one.

Morin said it was at least ridiculous to associate disruption of Russian-Georgian balance with possible purchase of the advanced warship by Russia. He added that NATO countries should conduct a dialog with Russia including the topics of defense and security co-operation, but not seek to ban any transactions. Opponents of the Mistral sale refer to such Moscow's statements as "once we had a Mistral class carrier, we'd win the Georgian war not in 26 hours but in 40 minutes".