Hollande Postpones Poland Visit Over Helicopter Deal Breakdown

PARIS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 07th Oct, 2016 ) - French President Francois Hollande has postponed a visit to Poland next week after Warsaw pulled out of a major deal to buy Airbus military helicopters, his office announced Friday.

On Tuesday, Poland halted talks with Airbus to buy 50 of its Caracal helicopters, a deal that would have been worth an estimated 3.14 billion Euros ($3.51 billion). Hollande had been due to visit Poland next Thursday but his office said the visit had been put back.

Instead, he was sending Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault for talks, said a statement. A source close to the talks said a visit to Poland by French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian set for next Monday had also been called off.

Poland's development ministry announced late on Tuesday that the differences between the two sides had made a compromise impossible and that there was no point in continuing the talks. "Poland considers the talks for a deal to be over," it added.

The deal on the table had involved an "offset" element, a commitment for the French to invest in Poland to offset the money spent buying the helicopters. But the Polish statement said that part of the deal had failed to meet their economic and security needs.