French chaos delays meeting on future of European fighter jet

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BERLIN (Reuters) -A trilateral ministerial meeting on the future of France, Germany and Spain’s 100-billion-euro project to develop a European fighter jet has been postponed due to the political crisis in France, a German defence ministry spokesperson told Reuters.

The defence ministers of the three countries had been scheduled to meet mid-October in a bid to resolve obstacles blocking the next phase in the development of the project, known as FCAS, the spokesperson said on Thursday evening.

But France has been left with just a caretaker government after outgoing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu tendered his and his government’s resignation on Monday, hours after announcing the cabinet line-up. French President Emmanuel Macron is now searching for his sixth prime minister in under two years.

“I confirm that the meeting is not taking place mid-October any more,” the spokesperson said. “We would like to schedule it as quickly as possible when there is a new French defense minister.”

Macron’s office had no immediate comment.

France’s Dassault Aviation, Airbus and Indra are involved in the scheme to start replacing French Rafale and German and Spanish Eurofighters with a sixth-generation fighter jet from 2040.

But the project has been plagued by delays and rifts between the companies and governments over workshare and intellectual property rights.

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke and Sabine Siebold in Berlin; Additional Reporting by Michel Rose in Paris and Aislinn Laing in Madrid; Writing by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Chris Reese and Deepa Babington)