U.S Urged France To Cancel The Sale Of Two Advanced Helicopter Carrier To Russia

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers urged
France on Thursday to cancel the sale of two
advanced helicopter carrier ships to Russia and
suggested that NATO buy or lease them instead.
"The purchase would send a strong signal to
(Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin that the
NATO allies will not tolerate or in any way enable
his reckless moves," they said in a letter to NATO
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen
obtained by Reuters.
Washington and some European partners have
been urging Paris to reconsider its supply of high-
tech military hardware to Moscow following
Russian action in Ukraine, including its annexation
of the Crimean peninsula in March.
Purchasing the ships would also enhance NATO's
capabilities at a time when many members have
been cutting defense expenditures, and reassure
NATO partners in Central and Eastern Europe, the
lawmakers said.
Signers of the letter included U.S. Representative
Eliot Engel of New York, the top Democrat on the
House of Representatives Foreign Affairs
Committee; Representative Michael Turner of
Ohio, chairman of the U.S. delegation to the
NATO Parliamentary Assembly; and
Massachusetts Representative William Keating,
the top Democrats on the House Europe
subcommittee.
France has said it would press ahead with the
deal because cancelling would do more damage
to Paris than to Moscow. The contract, worth
$1.66 billion, has created about 1,000 jobs and
includes the option for two more of the advanced
vessels.
Four other U.S. lawmakers wrote to Obama
earlier this month urging him to oppose the sale
of the Mistral ships, which can carry 16
helicopters, four landing craft, 60 armored
vehicles, 13 tanks and up to 700 soldiers.
A spokesman for Democratic U.S. Senator Mark
Warner of Virginia, who signed that letter, said he
was unaware of any response.
The 2011 French sale was Moscow's first major
foreign arms purchase in the two decades since
the fall of the Soviet Union. Former French
President Nicolas Sarkozy had hailed the signing
of the Mistral contract as evidence the Cold War
was over.
The first carrier, the Vladivostok, is due to be
delivered by the last quarter of 2014. The second,
to be delivered by 2016, is named Sebastopol,
after the Crimean seaport.