France

India Warns China After Receiving New Fighter Jets From France

The first five Rafale fighter jets bought from France in a multi-billion-dollar deal landed in India on Wednesday and the defense minister used their arrival to launch a veiled warning to neighboring China over territorial tensions.

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First French Fighter Jets Head to India After Purchase

The first five of a batch of French Rafale fighter jets purchased by New Delhi in a controversial multibillion-dollar deal headed to India on Monday for rapid deployment amid rising tensions with China.

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France Steps Up Space Spending to Gird for ‘Unfriendly’ Moves

France will increase spending on its new Space Force program by several hundreds of millions of euros as it prepares for potential "unfriendly maneuvers" among world powers.

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French FM Urges Iraq to Keep Away from Regional Tensions

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian urged Baghdad on Thursday to "dissociate" itself from boiling regional tensions.

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Turkey Slams France’s ‘Destructive’ Approach to Libya Conflict

Turkey on Tuesday blasted France’s “destructive” approach to the conflict in Libya in response to France's claims that Turkey's involvement in Libya has been “criminal.”

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Al-Qaeda North Africa Confirms Chief Is Dead: SITE

Al-Qaeda's North Africa wing has confirmed that its Algerian chief Abdelmalek Droukdel is dead, according to SITE, the US watchdog for extremist groups.

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‘Capture Not Possible:’ France’s Desert Operation Against Al-Qaeda Chief

The French military, for the first time, provided details on Thursday of how late last week it 'neutralized' Abdelmalek Droukdel, the 'the third deputy' of Al-Qaeda's leader.

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UAE Still a Top Client as French Arms Sales Fall

French arms sales dropped nearly 8.6 percent last year to 8.3 billion euros ($9.3 billion) from 2018, with the United Arab Emirates — a key player in the Yemen conflict — still a leading client, a government report said Tuesday. France is regularly criticized by rights groups for arms sales to clients such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which are embroiled in a long campaign against Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen that has claimed tens of thousands of civilian lives. A report presented to the French parliament Tuesday showed orders from Europe had grown to 3.47 billion euros — 45 percent of the total, up from a mere quarter the previous year. Belgium accounted for 1.8 million euros in sales. Middle Eastern clients represented about 30 percent last year with 2.15 billion euros in sales — down from almost 50 percent in 2018 — headed by the UAE with 1.5 billion euros and Saudi Arabia with 208.9 million euros. The numbers, “achieved in a context of particularly fierce competition confirming America’s supremacy and the emergence of new major exporters, particularly China … consolidates France’s place in the top five of global exporters,” said the report. In terms of deliveries, 2019 …

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Half of French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle crew test positive for COVID-19

Nearly half of the 2,300 sailors aboard France's aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and support craft when a coronavirus outbreak occurred tested positive

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Nearly 700 sailors from French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle test positive for coronavirus

A third of the nearly 2,000 sailors who were aboard France's aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and support craft when a coronavirus outbreak occurred tested positive

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