France has rebounded from the disappointment and anger of having its submarine contract with Australia torn up by signing new arms deals with Greece and Czechia. 

First came an announcement from Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, standing alongside France's President Emmanuel Macron, of the deal to buy at least six France-built warships. 

And France's Armed Forces Ministry on Wednesday confirmed the nation was ready to sell 52 Caesar artillery weapons to Czechia for $301m. The deal follows Czech cooperation with France's military mission in the Sahel region of North Africa.

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For $5 billion, Greece will receive three Belharra frigates and three Gowind corvettes, with an option for one more of each on delivery. It is hoped all the ships will be delivered to Athens by 2026, with the first frigate arriving in 2024. 

The French defense contractor Naval Group won the contract over U.S. firm Lockheed Martin after a three-year battle following Mitsotakis's declaration that Greece's navy needs more ships. 

The option to sign the deal with a French firm also followed French naval assistance for Greece's military in the ​​Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. The area is seen by many as key for the security of Europe and the EU due to its popularity as a route for migrants and refugees. 

"It's not a simple arms sale. It's a strategic deal that changes the situation in the east Mediterranean," lawmaker Dimitris Kairidis told Al Jazeera.

While the wider context of both the arms deals is the soc-called AUSUK pact between Australia, the U.S. and the UK, which France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described as a "stab in the back," the intra-European deals are signs of a European independence and united defense strategy, according to Macron. 

"We have a commitment to the independence of Europe. This is part of the common struggles we have undertaken in Europe – technological independence, a European defence, and combat-readiness," Macron said of the deal with Greece. 

"This [deal] comes after a period of rapprochement with Czechia that was marked on a strategic level, but also a vision that is closer to what European defence policy should be and should bring us," an official told reporters in Prague, ahead of Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly's planned visit to sign the contract.