Sell French warships to Nato not Russia: USA

US lawmakers urged France to break its contract to sell two warships to Russia and instead sell or lease them to NATO, which said on Friday it was up to Paris to decide.

Three congressmen led by Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to the transatlantic alliance's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressing concern about the construction and sale to the Russian navy of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers.

"It is critical that NATO countries no longer provide powerful weapons to enhance Russia's ability to intimidate or even invade its neighbours," the lawmakers wrote Thursday, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggression in Ukraine.

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