French Defence Minister visits Egypt to sign Rafale deal

In a nationally-televised ceremony, Egypt and France signed on Monday evening a deal whereby Cairo purchased 24 French Rafale jet fighters
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drianarrives had arrivted at Egypt’s Ittihadeya presidential palace in Cairo to seal the deal with his Egyptian counterpart Sedky Sobhi.
The ceremony was attended by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and top Egyptian army generals.
The deal- which includes 24 Rafale fighter jets, a naval frigate and related military equipment- is worth more than 5 billion euros ($5.70 billion).
Meanwhile, France condemned on Monday the killing of 21 Copts in Libya by Islamic State militants.
The contract would make Egypt, which aims to upgrade its military hardware amid widening regional crisis, the first export customer for the warplane, built by Dassault Aviation.
The contract is the first overseas for the Rafale, 14 years after it entered service and three years after Dassault Aviation entered exclusive negotiations to sell 126 of the combat jets to India.