Minister of Defence Sedki Sobhi attended the ceremony for the delivery of the first of two Mistral-class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) warships on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Sobhi travelled to France on Wednesday leading a military delegation that included Head of the Egyptian Naval Forces Osama Rabie.<\/p>\n
French and Egyptian military officials held a short press conference on Thursday morning before the commencement of the flag-raising ceremony.<\/p>\n
Rabie told state-run MENA that this warship is the first of its kind in the Middle East, as the region has been facing escalating security threats recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Egyptian and the French sides agree that the current regional challenges require new and advanced strategies,\u201d Rabie said.<\/p>\n
Egypt named the two warships after former presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat. The second Mistral warship will be received in September.<\/p>\n
According to Rabie, the new Mistral warships will enable Egypt to accomplish its missions more rapidly as well as performing crucial military operations. They will also serve other Arab countries.<\/p>\n
Egypt had acquired the two Mistrals back in June 2015 during Sobhi\u2019s first visit to Paris in a bid to strengthen bilateral cooperation between both countries.<\/p>\n
This came few months after Egypt had announced a \u20ac5.2bn agreement to buy 24 French Rafale jet fighters in February 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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