AFP/Vilnius

Lithuania yesterday joined Estonia in pressing France to explain plans to sell an assault ship to Russia, which have sparked jitters in the Baltic states amid tensions with their Soviet-era master Moscow.

Lithuanian foreign ministry spokesman Rolandas Kacinskas said that Vilnius wanted Paris to make clear “exactly what kind of equipment it plans to sell and what it can be used for”. He underscored that fellow Nato and European Union member France was a “strategic partner” for Lithuania.

On Tuesday, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet had also said his country wanted to know if the warship would be sold “with or without top military technology”.

Russian and French officials have confirmed Moscow is in talks to buy a Mistral helicopter-carrier assault vessel along with a licence to produce at least four others.

If it happens, the deal would be unprecedented since World War II. Moscow has long insisted on producing all its military hardware itself.

Mistral-class vessels, capable of carrying around a dozen heavy helicopters along with various types of landing craft, can be used to put special forces ashore quickly.

Critics say the plans come too soon after Moscow’s 2008 war with pro-Western Georgia - which highlighted a lack of such craft in its Black Sea fleet - as well as recent Russian exercises near the Baltic states.

Like Georgia, Lithuania and Estonia broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991. In contrast, they are anchored in the West after joining Nato and the EU in 2004.

Their ties with Moscow have ebbed and flowed since independence, and been notably frosty since Nato and EU entry.

They often raise concerns about Moscow’s growing assertiveness and suggest some west European allies are failing to take their worries seriously.