Hey anybody want a CV?? It's got two steam catapults! This news maybe some what dated but still intresting.
What a mess..the former French CV Clemenceau has been ordered back to France by French President Chirac after pressure from enviromental concerns. The CV was sold to India to be scrapped. the ship was under tow to India when ordered back.
Question is..Why did not France sell this ship? They sold the Foch. What happened? It would have made a perfect firts Cv for the PLAN if the arms embargo was lifted...Comments anyone???
Chirac Orders "Toxic" Warship Back to France
PARIS - President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday ordered home an asbestos-laden warship after Indian authorities blocked its journey to an Indian scrapyard, days before a visit to New Delhi overshadowed by the legal wrangle.
Chirac ordered the retired aircraft carrier Clemenceau back to France pending a final decision on how to dispose of the 27,000-tonne ship.
He demanded a fresh audit of the amount of deadly asbestos on board, after a 30-tonne discrepancy emerged between the amount of asbestos said to have been taken off the Clemenceau and the amount weighed by disposal teams.
"The president has decided to put this ship in French waters, on a position of standby which offers all security guarantees, until a definitive solution for its dismantling is found," Chirac's Elysee Palace said in a statement.
India's top court has already banned the Clemenceau from entering the country's territorial waters, pending a final decision on whether the asbestos represents a health hazard to Indian scrapyard workers.
French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said the Clemenceau would return to France via the Cape of Good Hope and the passage would take about three months. It has been in a waiting zone off India's territorial waters since mid-January.
The ship's outward passage was delayed when Egypt sought assurances that it did not pose an environmental threat before allowing it to pass through the Suez Canal.
"Regarding the cost of the return, that will be taken on by the state and should be around 1 million euros," Alliot-Marie told a news conference broadcast on national television, adding that the ship would head to the port of Brest in western France.
GOVERNMENT UNDER FIRE
The costly decision to bring back the Clemenceau gave ammunition to France's opposition parties to attack the conservative government, which is pursuing a cost-cutting budgetary policy to tackle the state's mounting debts.
"This decision should have been taken several weeks ago," Socialist leader Francois Hollande said in a statement, demanding an inquiry into the matter. "This affair of state seriously tarnishes the image of France and of the president".
Rudy Salles, a deputy with the centrist Union of French Democracy party, criticised the government for "an unacceptable loss of time, prestige and money".
Once the pride of the French navy but now dubbed the "Farcical Flagship" by critics, the Clemenceau affair has cast a shadow over Chirac's trip to India on Sunday.
The French leader will be accompanied by a host of top business executives during the trip, determined to press French claims to lucrative contracts for Airbus passenger jets, military hardware and possibly civilian nuclear know-how.
Relations between France and India have been strained in recent weeks by Paris's resistance to a bid by Mittal Steel, owned by Indian-born billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, to buy steelmaker Arcelor, which employs 28,500 people in France.
Chirac's decision came after France's top administrative court ruled the Clemenceau's transfer to a breaker's yard in the western Indian state of Gujarat should be suspended.
The Council of State said the ship was "hazardous waste" and so had been exported in breach of international rules.
Environment group Greenpeace, which led the fight to prevent Clemenceau from entering India, welcomed the decision.
"President Chirac's decision shows how governments, when confronted with the truth and pressurised by public opinion, take corrective action," it said in a statement issued from the southern Indian city of Bangalore
What a mess..the former French CV Clemenceau has been ordered back to France by French President Chirac after pressure from enviromental concerns. The CV was sold to India to be scrapped. the ship was under tow to India when ordered back.
Question is..Why did not France sell this ship? They sold the Foch. What happened? It would have made a perfect firts Cv for the PLAN if the arms embargo was lifted...Comments anyone???
Chirac Orders "Toxic" Warship Back to France
PARIS - President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday ordered home an asbestos-laden warship after Indian authorities blocked its journey to an Indian scrapyard, days before a visit to New Delhi overshadowed by the legal wrangle.
Chirac ordered the retired aircraft carrier Clemenceau back to France pending a final decision on how to dispose of the 27,000-tonne ship.
He demanded a fresh audit of the amount of deadly asbestos on board, after a 30-tonne discrepancy emerged between the amount of asbestos said to have been taken off the Clemenceau and the amount weighed by disposal teams.
"The president has decided to put this ship in French waters, on a position of standby which offers all security guarantees, until a definitive solution for its dismantling is found," Chirac's Elysee Palace said in a statement.
India's top court has already banned the Clemenceau from entering the country's territorial waters, pending a final decision on whether the asbestos represents a health hazard to Indian scrapyard workers.
French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said the Clemenceau would return to France via the Cape of Good Hope and the passage would take about three months. It has been in a waiting zone off India's territorial waters since mid-January.
The ship's outward passage was delayed when Egypt sought assurances that it did not pose an environmental threat before allowing it to pass through the Suez Canal.
"Regarding the cost of the return, that will be taken on by the state and should be around 1 million euros," Alliot-Marie told a news conference broadcast on national television, adding that the ship would head to the port of Brest in western France.
GOVERNMENT UNDER FIRE
The costly decision to bring back the Clemenceau gave ammunition to France's opposition parties to attack the conservative government, which is pursuing a cost-cutting budgetary policy to tackle the state's mounting debts.
"This decision should have been taken several weeks ago," Socialist leader Francois Hollande said in a statement, demanding an inquiry into the matter. "This affair of state seriously tarnishes the image of France and of the president".
Rudy Salles, a deputy with the centrist Union of French Democracy party, criticised the government for "an unacceptable loss of time, prestige and money".
Once the pride of the French navy but now dubbed the "Farcical Flagship" by critics, the Clemenceau affair has cast a shadow over Chirac's trip to India on Sunday.
The French leader will be accompanied by a host of top business executives during the trip, determined to press French claims to lucrative contracts for Airbus passenger jets, military hardware and possibly civilian nuclear know-how.
Relations between France and India have been strained in recent weeks by Paris's resistance to a bid by Mittal Steel, owned by Indian-born billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, to buy steelmaker Arcelor, which employs 28,500 people in France.
Chirac's decision came after France's top administrative court ruled the Clemenceau's transfer to a breaker's yard in the western Indian state of Gujarat should be suspended.
The Council of State said the ship was "hazardous waste" and so had been exported in breach of international rules.
Environment group Greenpeace, which led the fight to prevent Clemenceau from entering India, welcomed the decision.
"President Chirac's decision shows how governments, when confronted with the truth and pressurised by public opinion, take corrective action," it said in a statement issued from the southern Indian city of Bangalore