PARIS/ Cairo: France will discuss the possible sale of more Rafale aircraft with Egyptian leader Abdul Fattah Al Sissi during his visit to Paris this week, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Europe 1 radio on Tuesday.
Under the previous government, France had concluded several major military agreements with Egypt, including the sale of 24 Rafale combat aircraft, a multi-mission frigate and two Mistral warships in contracts worth some 6 billion euros.
The 2015 Rafale contract — the first export contract for the jet — included the option of selling another twelve aircrafts.
“If there can be new contracts, so much the better. That will be discussed today by the President of the Republic [Macron] and the president [Al Sissi],” said Le Maire, when asked by Europe 1 radio to comment on reports that the sale of the extra 12 aircraft was on the table but that his ministry was reluctant because of the payment terms asked for by Egypt.
“It is normal that Bercy [the French finance ministry] would want to make sure Egypt should be able to pay its plane orders,” Le Maire said.
Al Sissi is in Paris until Oct 25. Rafale-maker Dassault Aviation declined to comment.
France and Egypt have nurtured closer economic and military ties in recent years, and with Al Sissi’s rise to power that relationship has improved with both sides concerned by the political vacuum in Libya and the threat from extremist groups in Egypt.
Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities have accused Reuters and the BBC of “inaccurate coverage” of clashes in the western desert between security forces and armed militants in which police officers and conscripts were killed on Friday.
In a statement, Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) said Reuters had made “grave professional mistakes” by relying on unidentified security sources and not “resorting to official security authorities to get correct information”.
The Ministry of Interior in an initial statement on Friday did not give any casualty figure for Friday’s clashes. On Saturday, a ministry statement said 16 police and conscripts were killed and another 13 wounded in a remote western desert area after they came under heavy fire from the armed group.
