Middle East & North Africa
French frigate in Latakia for the first time: Syrian and French officers discussed naval cooperation aboard the Surcouf
For the first time a French warship has called at a Syrian port. The frigate Surcouf is in Latakia, where Syrian and French officers met on its deck to discuss naval cooperation between the two countries.
For the first time a French warship has called at a port in Syria. The French Navy (Marine nationale) frigate Surcouf is at Latakia, the main port of the Syrian coast, and on Thursday, November 12, a meeting of Syrian and French officers took place on its deck on the subject of the two countries’ naval cooperation.
The Syrian delegation was led by Brigadier General Mohammad al-Saoud, commander of the Naval Forces and Coastal Defence of the Syrian Arab Army. As announced by the official Syrian agency SANA, al-Saoud received the French military mission headed by Admiral Mackara Ouk, accompanied by French Navy officers. Syrian officers also took part in the meeting.
The two sides examined how cooperation in the naval field can be widened and how the military ties between Paris and Damascus will be developed. The Syrian side presents the visit as a “step” in military rapprochement with France, with emphasis on maritime cooperation and bilateral relations. A French diplomat described it with the same word to the Syrian website Enab Baladi on Wednesday, November 11, when the ship’s arrival had already become known.
The frigate and the new landscape on the Syrian coast
The Surcouf (F711) is a frigate of the La Fayette class, among the first warships designed with a reduced radar signature. She was launched in 1993 at the Lorient shipyard and entered service in 1997. She displaces about 3,600 tonnes fully loaded and carries Exocet MM40 anti-ship missiles, a Crotale air-defence missile system and a 100 mm gun. In October 2023 she had been sent to the Eastern Mediterranean at the start of the war in Gaza. Her name honours the privateer Robert Surcouf (1773–1827).
For decades the only foreign warships seen by Syrian ports were Russian, based at Tartus. After the fall of Assad in December 2024, the Russian military presence in the country is shrinking, with withdrawals such as the one from Qamishli airport in early 2026, while the new government in Damascus opens channels to Western capitals.
France, which held the mandate for Syria after the First World War until 1946, is among the countries that moved fastest toward the new Syrian leadership. The rapprochement peaked in July with Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Damascus, the first by a French president in 17 years, marked by explosions near the hotel where he was to stay. The Surcouf’s arrival in Latakia now carries the relationship into the naval field, on a coast that for years was a Russian stronghold in the Eastern Mediterranean.
