CAIRO, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian navy received on Thursday at a naval base in the coastal province of Alexandria a corvette granted by South Korea as a gift to Egypt, the Egyptian military spokesman said in a statement.
"The corvette has been gifted to Egypt in the framework of distinguished military relations between the Egyptian and the South Korean armed forces," said Egyptian military spokesman Tamer al-Refaay in the statement.
Named Shabab Misr (Youth of Egypt), the corvette has high-level combat capabilities, a long distance sailing ability that can cover 4,500 nautical miles at a speed up to 32 knots and a total capacity of 1,240 tons, according to the statement.
Egypt received earlier this month a French-made Gowind 2500 corvette and German-made Type-209/1400 submarine as part of larger deals signed with the two Western countries.
The Gowind 2500 corvette, named by Egypt as Al-Fateh (the Conquerer), is the first of four ordered by Egypt from French shipbuilder Naval Group as per a 2014 contract estimated at 1 billion euros (about 1.2 billion U.S. dollars).
The corvette was officially delivered to Egypt in September in a ceremony held at the French city of Lorient.
As for the German-made Type-209/1400 submarine, it is the second to be delivered to Egypt out four ordered by the North African country from Berlin in twos in 2011 and 2014.
The first was handed to Egypt in December 2016 and joined the Egyptian naval fleet in April 2017.
In October 2015, Egypt and France signed another contract worth 1 billion dollars on the purchase of two French Mistral warships, which were delivered to Egypt in June and September 2016.
In recent years, the most populous Arab country signed influential multibillion-dollar arms deals with a number of European countries to boost its military capabilities amid regional turmoil and conflicts, especially in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen.
