Minister of Defence Sedki Sobhi attended the ceremony for the delivery of the first of two Mistral-class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) warships on Thursday.
Sobhi travelled to France on Wednesday leading a military delegation that included Head of the Egyptian Naval Forces Osama Rabie.
French and Egyptian military officials held a short press conference on Thursday morning before the commencement of the flag-raising ceremony.
Rabie told state-run MENA that this warship is the first of its kind in the Middle East, as the region has been facing escalating security threats recently.
“The Egyptian and the French sides agree that the current regional challenges require new and advanced strategies,” Rabie said.
Egypt named the two warships after former presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat. The second Mistral warship will be received in September.
According to Rabie, the new Mistral warships will enable Egypt to accomplish its missions more rapidly as well as performing crucial military operations. They will also serve other Arab countries.
Egypt had acquired the two Mistrals back in June 2015 during Sobhi’s first visit to Paris in a bid to strengthen bilateral cooperation between both countries.
This came few months after Egypt had announced a €5.2bn agreement to buy 24 French Rafale jet fighters in February 2015.
