French navy unloads aid for quake victims

By HELEN TARAWA
THE French naval vessel Vendemiare is on a two-day goodwill visit to PNG bringing 10 tonnes of supplies for the earthquake-affected areas.
Captain Alexandra Blonce said the supplies, including tinned fish, beef, rice and water, have been handed over to the Disaster Relief committee.
“We are also in the country to deliver humanitarian aid. We were in Manila, Philippines, when we heard about the earthquake,” he said. They have on a deployment for three months and departed New Caledonia on Jan 15.
“We are at the end of the deployment and PNG is among the last countries that we are visiting,” he said.
“The goodwill visit in the country is an opportunity to develop interaction with the PNG government as part of the partnership of the region to ask about maritime security.”
Blonce said they had nine ports of call. Port Moresby is the eighth before they sail onto Cairns in Australia before returning to Noumea.
There are more than 96 crew members, 30 officers, 60 petty officers and 22 seamen. Almost 10 per cent of the crew are women.
“It is our first visit, me as the captain and my officers and crew but the vessel has been in Port Moresby about five times.”