French are Finks

Broke? Buy a few warships, France tells Greece

Yes, this is the same country that sold their warships to Russsssia (no that is a not a typo) despite condemnation from her NATO allies. Now you know why Dwight D. Eisenhower wanted to keep them out of the D-Day Operation. With such friends, who needs enemies ?

A Fremm multimission frigate in an undated image courtesy of DCNS.

Credit: Reuters/Handout

 (Reuters) - In a bizarre twist to the Greek debt crisis, France and Germany are pressing Greece to buy their gunboats and warplanes, even as they urge it to cut public spending and curb its deficit.
Indeed, some Greek officials privately say Paris and Berlin are using the crisis as leverage to advance arms contracts or settle payment disputes, just when the Greeks are trying to reduce defense spending.

"No one is saying 'Buy our warships or we won't bail you out', but the clear implication is that they will be more supportive if we do what they want on the armaments front," said an adviser to Prime Minister George Papandreou, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity.

Greece spends more of its gross domestic product on the military than any other European Union country, largely due to long-standing tension with its neighbor, historic rival and NATO ally, Turkey.

"The Germans and the French have them over a barrel now," said Nick Witney, a former head of the European Defense Agency.
"If you are trying to repair Greek public finances, it's a ludicrous way to go about things."

France is pushing to sell six frigates, 15 helicopters and up to 40 top-of-the-range Rafale fighter aircraft.

Greek and French officials said President Nicolas Sarkozy was personally involved and had broached the matter when Papandreou visited France last month to seek support in the financial crisis.

FRIGATE PURCHASE

The Greeks were so sensitive to Sarkozy's concerns that they announced on the day Papandreou went to Paris that they would go ahead with buying six Fremm frigates worth 2.5 billion euros ($3.38 billion), despite their budget woes.

The ships are made by the state-controlled shipyard DCNS, which is a quarter owned by defense electronics group Thales  and may have to lay workers off in the downturn.

Greece is also in talks buy 15 French Super Puma search-and-rescue helicopters made by aerospace giant EADS  for an estimated 400 million euros.

The Rafale, made by Dassault Aviation , is a more distant and vastly dearer prospect. There is no published price, but each costs over $100 million, plus weapons.