The French frigate Premier-Maitre L’Her arrived in Batumi on Georgia’s Black Sea coast on October 17 for a three-day port visit as part of “bilateral French-Georgian defense cooperation,” embassy of France in Tbilisi said.

Joint diver training exercises with the Georgian coast guard will be held on October 18 and naval boarding exercise is scheduled for October 19, according to the French embassy.

Premier-Maitre L’Her is from the A69 type vessels, designed mainly for coastal anti-submarine defence, which are also deployed for high sea escort missions.

Announcement about planned port visit of the French navy ship was first made in September, when French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Georgia.
 
French navy ships made port visits in Batumi three times between April and September of 2014 – light stealth frigate FS Surcouf; intelligence-gathering ship Dupuy de Lôme, and Commandant Birot (F 796).