France still supporting submarine sale to Poland.

The French embassy in Poland has made a formal denial of the statements made by Polityka Insight on December 3, 2018 that France will withdraw its support for Naval Group's bid for the Orka submarine program. There is no change in the support that the French government provides to Naval Group and MBDA as part of its offer to Poland that exclusively includes the integration of the Naval Cruise Missile with the Scorpene submarine.

Scorpene submarine (Picture source: Chile Navy)

The Orka program is considered by France as an important lever of the rapprochement between our two armies, able to open and to find a new stage of the strategic relationship between France and Poland. An ambitious partnership, covering technological, operational and industrial aspects, was thus proposed to the Polish Ministry of Defense in order to build over time this essential capacity for Poland to ensure its defense in all sovereignty.

The high-level dialogue between our Ministries of Defense is sustained and constant on this program as on many other topics, as evidenced by the holding of our Armaments Committee on December 5 in Warsaw. Finally, the visit of the multi-mission frigate (FREMM) to Gdynia, during its sea trials campaign before entering operational service, was postponed only for technical reasons.