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France Defends Warship Sale to Russia

PALMA DE MALLORCA, Balearic Islands — France's defense minister defended on Thursday the sale of a modern assault ship to the Russian Navy, saying critics should not treat Russia as if it were the Soviet Union.

Herve Morin said he understands the concerns of Baltic and other nations "given the past history of their relations with Russia."

"At the same time, we cannot build a partnership of peace and security in Europe if we continue to view Russia as if it were the Soviet Union," Morin said while attending a meeting of EU defense ministers on this Spanish island.

The potential sale is expected to come up when President Dmitry Medvedev meets French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a visit to Paris next month.

Medvedev confirmed Moscow's interest in buying the warship in an interview with French weekly magazine Paris Match, a transcript of which was published in Russian on the Kremlin's web site Thursday.

Sarkozy sent his European affairs minister, Pierre Lellouche, to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia this week to calm their nerves over any Mistral deal. Lithuania said Wednesday that Lellouche had given assurances that if it went ahead, the ship would be stripped of military technology.

The Mistral is marketed by French naval firm DCNS and estimated to cost 300 million to 500 million euros ($405 million to $675 million). It is able to carry helicopters, troops, armored vehicles and tanks.

Besides the three Baltic nations, the United States and several other countries have expressed concerns about the sale, the largest such deal between a NATO member and Russia since the end of World War II. NATO has described the concerns of its Baltic members as "real and understandable."

Separately, Medvedev reiterated in the interview that Russia is disturbed by NATO's "endless enlargement."

Russia has made future NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia a "red line" in its relations with the West. Russia's new military doctrine, published Feb. 5, says one of the "main external threats of war" comes from the alliance's eastward expansion to Russia's borders.

"NATO is not seen as the main military threat in the military doctrine," Medvedev said.

"The issue is that NATO's endless enlargement, by absorbing countries that were once part of the Soviet Union, or who are our immediate neighbors, is of course creating problems because NATO is after all, a military bloc," he said.

Medvedev warned that Russia would not remain indifferent if NATO continued to expand and reconfigure missiles near its borders.

"This can't but disturb us," Medvedev said, adding that it did not mean that Russia was returning to the thinking of the Cold War, when NATO was the Soviet Union's biggest foe.

(AP, Reuters)

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