France gets to say "We didn't sell them to Russia!", and gets paid. China makes a little money, and gets even better relations with Russia. Putin gets his Mistrals, and the ability to project power, for the Russian Navy.
I wonder if the French warships come with a permanently attached white flag?
France, bashing itself in the face for more than 70 years.
yep. Who needs Victor Bout when you got the French.
So, a potential solution for not selling to Russia (let's call that country a mangy dog that is acting like it has rabies) is to sell to China (let's call it a ravenous tiger with a bad toothache). Yup! 100% Mensa thinking right there chaps! True genius!
Russia is a veritable 'bad guy,' but China makes Russia look like Mr Rogers. Maybe not right now, but in the next decade or two the West will miss the Soviet Union as China rises up (even higher than it is now) and shows what happens when you take Western capitalism, reject Soviet stupidity but keep the need to (at least eventually) defeat the West.
Hey NATO/EU get off your butts and buy these...then sail them to the Med to interdict and return to Africa the immigrants fleeing to Europe.
China will be selling knockoffs in a few years ,LOL
Highly unlikely, if not impossible. France is trying to selling billions worth of weaponry to India/Australia/Malaysia and possibly Vietnam.
The total worth of two Mistral ships is far short of that prospective market and China actually is building its own LHDs. It seems like mischief from Sputnik News.