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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Brazil and France sign 20B$ arms deal |
| 2008-12-24 |
| Brazil has signed an 8.6bn euro ($12bn; £8.2bn) defence deal with France to buy 50 helicopters and five submarines. The deal includes transfers of technology intended to help Brazil develop its own arms industry. It was signed at the end of a two-day visit to Brazil by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. France will provide technology for the submarines, of which four will be conventional and the fifth will be nuclear-powered. They will be partly built and assembled in Brazil. The 50 EC725 helicopters will be built locally by Helibras, a subsidiary of Eurocopter, which is part of the European aerospace company EADS. The aircraft are expected to be delivered in 2010. A French official was cited as saying that 6bn euros would go to French companies and 2.6bn euros to Brazilian ones. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the deal reflected Brazil's status as an emerging power. "France is willing to... build an alliance in Brazil, to transfer technology so Brazil can have a defence industry that corresponds to its importance in the hemisphere, in the world," he said. Mr Sarkozy said: "It is an historic decision because France believes that a powerful Brazil is an important element for the stability of the world." Earlier in the visit he had argued that Brazil should have a greater role in international affairs and a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #12 They've had subs for years.... aircraft carrier Fixed it. |
| Posted by: Victor Emmanuel Omolush9919 2008-12-24 20:58 |
| #11 You have to be careful with those sub fleets. Russia's had a big fleet for a long time but lately they seem to be developing more of the kind that stay submerged 100% of the time, and that is not the kind of submarine fleet you want. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-12-24 10:49 |
| #10 So to make a long story short, if I discovered as much oil as Brazil just did over the past couple of years I would be looking to find ways to insure it. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2008-12-24 10:36 |
| #9 Look at all the places with oil that appear to have civil wars with outside sponsorship, as if there's a conspiracy to keep certain countries from producing or even from doing too much exploration. (Off the top of my head: Nigeria, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru...) |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2008-12-24 10:33 |
| #8 Actually, it is a smart move to keep the oil and commerce safe from smaller but more aggressive neighbors. Also helps with anti-pirate and anti-drug operations. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-12-24 10:08 |
| #7 They've had subs for years.... aircraft carriers too. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-12-24 09:48 |
| #6 Spending the money before they have sold the oil. Sounds familiar. |
| Posted by: Hellfish 2008-12-24 08:53 |
| #5 Brazil announced their intention to acquire a small sub fleet shortly after major oil deposits were discovered off their coast. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-12-24 08:23 |
| #4 It's all finally coming OUT! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-12-24 08:10 |
| #3 They got a Kaiser? :) |
| Posted by: P2k on holiday 2008-12-24 08:07 |
| #2 So why does Brazil need subs? For the same reason Germany needed Dreadnoughts. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-12-24 07:52 |
| #1 Brazil has signed an 8.6bn euro ($12bn; £8.2bn) defence deal with France to buy 50 helicopters and five submarines. So why does Brazil need subs? Their greatest application in the 20th Century was as a anti-commerce weapon. Hello, Hugo, if you can't move the tankers out, you can't sell the crap. So, keep up the 'piss'n off the neighbors' routine. You'll find even a modest capability of interdiction will require a massive amount of capital to develop effective anti-sub warfare abilities. |
| Posted by: P2k on holiday 2008-12-24 07:13 |