“The three Belharra frigates were an ardent desire of our navy and now Greece will have surface ships worthy of our Greek captains for the next 30 years,” the prime minister said on Thursday during the parliament debate on the “Ratification of the Agreement between the Government of the Hellenic Republic and the Government of the French Republic on the establishment of a strategic partnership for cooperation in defence and security.”
“The first Rafale [fighter aircraft] will arrive in Tanagra before the end of the year. In addition, there are agreements with Egypt and Italy on maritime zones, there is also an agreement with the United Arab Emirates with a corresponding mutual defence clause, relations with Israel and the extension of the defence agreement with the United States for the next five years,” he said.
Mitsotakis described as “very important” the “Euro-Atlantic dimension of the agreement, but also the strengthening of the European framework” as “this agreement is fully compatible with the Franco-German Aachen agreement”.
“At the same time, a single European position is being established in the Mediterranean,” he said, explaining that these were all proof of a strong, autonomous European presence in the future.
“I share Macron’s view that we Europeans should stop greeting with naivety the tectonic changes in the geopolitical arena that are happening around us,” he adeed.
“It is an agreement that upgrades the cooperation between the two countries in the fields of defence and security and of foreign policy overall,” stated Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
“This historic text is put to parliament for consideration, making today’s debate a historic debate as its ratification means the protection of Greece, the strengthening of the south European part of the agreement,. as well as the first effort for Europe’s strategic autonomy,” underlined the premier, adding that “for the first time there is provision for a clear and unequivocal clause of defence assistance in the case of an attack by a third party on one of the two countries and we all are aware who is threatening with casus belli our region”.
SOURCE: AMNA
