Russia has reached a compensation deal with France for the non-delivery of two Mistral warships, a Kremlin aide has said, but Paris on Friday denied any agreement was imminent, reports FRANCE 24.
"The negotiations are completely finished, everything has already been decided, both the time-frame and the amount," President Vladimir Putin's adviser for military and technical cooperation, Vladimir Kozhin, told state news agency RIA Novosti on Thursday evening.
"I hope we will sign the agreement on the termination of the contract as soon as possible," he added.
However, French president François Hollande responded by saying there was “no deal yet” with Russia.
“Discussions are under way. I will make a decision in the coming weeks,” he told a press conference.
The fate of the two Mistral helicopter carriers has plagued France-Russia ties for more than a year, following Paris' decision in November to put the 1.2-billion-euro ($1.3-billion) deal on ice as the West slapped sanctions on Moscow over its annexation of Crimea and alleged backing for separatist rebels in Ukraine.
President Hollande said earlier this year that the conditions for the delivery were "still not right" and suggested that only the full implementation of a tenuous ceasefire in eastern Ukraine could make Paris revisit the situation.
The French president had said on Monday he would decide "in the coming weeks" whether or not to scrap the contentious contract to supply the two warships to Russia.
A French source close to the situation said Friday that an agreement with Russia had indeed been reached but that some details still "needed to be finalised".
However, French prime minister Manuel Valls refused to confirm the reports, saying only that “important decisions” over the warships would be made “at the end of the summer”.