In recent days, the Turkish and Pakistani press has returned to the modernization program for Pakistani submarines of the Agosta-90B type, which is being redesigned in Turkey. The Turkish company STM, in charge of the redesign of the first building, is said to have said that a first modernized Agosta-90B would be launched by the end of the month "despite the sanctions and restrictions" imposed by France.
However, the declaration does not specify whether its sanctions and restrictions are imposed by the French authorities or by Naval Group, the manufacturer of the Agosta, or whether they are applied to the end customer (Pakistan) or to the Turkish manufacturers in charge of the modernization. However that may be, there is nothing surprising in finding the divorce between Naval Group and France on the one hand and the Pakistani navy on the other. The 2002 attack in Karachi against the employees of DCN (today Naval Group) had thrown an irreversible cold between the authorities of the two countries. The subsequent sale in India of Scorpene submarines, more modern than the Agosta, had finally marked the regional strategic transition of Naval Group, which no longer really wants to do business with Islamabad beyond the current obligations.
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