Media: French Mistrals built for Russia may be sold to China

BEIJING, May 11. /TASS/. French Navy representatives while on a visit to Shanghai may propose to China a deal on acquiring the Mistral-class helicopter carriers built for Russia, the Chinese media said Monday.

A group of French ships is expected to stay at the port of Shanghai May 9 through May 15. The group includes the Dixmude a Mistral-class landing vessel, as well as the Aconit, a Lafayette-class fregate.

The media say it's the first time a Mistral-class vessel calls at a Chinese port. 

Earlier French media reports said one of the options for dealing with the helicopter carriers build for Russia was to sink them in the open sea.

The newspaper also said the plans of using the Mistral helicopter carriers by the French Navy are "unlikely" as they have been built in accordance with the Russian standards and the efforts to reequip them will cost hundreds of millions of euros.

"In this context, the main option is the possibility of finding new customers for these two Mistrals," the report says. The potential clients are Canada, Egypt and a North European country.

Under the contract, Russia was expected to receive the first of the two warships, the Vladivostok, in the autumn of 2014. However, Paris suspended the ship’s handover to Russia at the very last moment over Moscow’s stance on developments in neighboring Ukraine.

It was planned that the second ship dubbed the Sevastopol would be handed over to Russia in the second half of 2015. But the deal was suspended like in the case with the first Mistral ship.