Defence Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos was invited by his French counterpart Sébastien Lecornu to attend the launching ceremony of the first French Belh@rra on Monday since the very next frigate to enter the dock for construction will be the Greek one.
According to sources, at the centre of the discussion between the two ministers will be the further acceleration of the delivery of the first Belh@rra to Greece, which in all probability, instead of March 2025 as originally planned, will join the ranks of the Hellenic Navy at the end of 2024.
Work is proceeding at an extremely intensive pace.
Panagiotopoulos is also expected to bring to the attention of the French the possibility of activating the option for the purchase of an additional Belh@rra frigate, the price of which is 1 billion euros.
The French are seeking to renegotiate the relevant contract due to the significant increase in prices for the ship’s construction raw materials.
In this context, there is information that within the next period of time the Naval Group is preparing to submit a proposal package for the acquisition from Greece of the Belh@rra frigate option, as well as two Gowind corvettes at competitive prices.
In the next period, new, important decisions are expected for large armament programmes, with priority for the Navy, as Proto Thema previously reported.
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