US, French Aircraft Carriers Dock at Souda Bay, Crete greekreporter.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from greekreporter.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Its arrival is part of a four-month deployment through the Eastern Mediterranean, Red Sea, Indian Ocean and Arabian Gulf called ‘Clemenceau 21’.
French Ambassador Salina Grenet-Catalano expressed her gratitude to the Cypriot authorities for the continuous service of French naval warships but also for the high level of hospitality and cooperation in matters of defence and security.
On his part, the captain of the aircraft carrier Captain Guillaume Pinget also thanked the Cypriot authorities for hosting in these special, as he said, conditions of the pandemic.
Limassol, he continued, is a familiar place for sailors and they are happy to rest after three months of leaving their base in Toulon and after three weeks in the Persian Gulf.
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (CSG) and the French Charles de Gaulle CSG are cooperating at levels of integration rarely achieved in the past. Indeed, it is at the request of US CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie to the French Army deputy commander for Air-Land operations (SCOAT for ‘’sous chef des opérations aéroterrestres de l’armée de Terre’’) that the French Air Naval Group (GAN for ‘’groupe aéronaval’’) assume command of US Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT)’s Task Force (CFT) 50 from March 31st till April 24th’’, explains a French military officer.