Greece bought 24 burst French manufacturing planes, but Turkey cannot easily equal this after its expulsion from the F-35 program in 2019 after purchasing the Air Defense system of Russia S-400.
Instead, Ankara is now aimed at buying 40 Eurofighter Typhoon Fighter Jets – 20 UK second -hand and 20 new – and wishes them equipped with meteors. The missiles are manufactured by the European armament manufacturer based in Paris Mbda.
Although they are NATO allies, Athens and Ankara have disagreed for years compared to a certain number of bilateral quarrels, including maritime limits, overlapping their assertions in their continental shelves and in Cyprus.
At the end of January, the Greek Minister of Defense, Nikos Dendias, summoned the French ambassador to Athens, Laurence Auer, asking “an official update on the reports on the sale”.
“I expressed to the French ambassador the strong opposition of Greece to such a possibility, which does not in accordance with the excellent strategic relations between the two countries,” said Dendias in his article on the X platform.
Seeking to relieve the concerns of Athens, a French diplomat told Greek media that the United Kingdom, not France, leads talks on the agreement.
Politices
