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New stage of the strategic alliance between Paris and Athens: on the eve of its national holiday, Greece signed this Thursday the purchase from France of three defense and intervention frigates (FDI) and six Rafale combat aircraft . “Ensuring the defense of a country requires being ready for all eventualities, even the harshest”, declared the French Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly “convinced that our defense begins at sea” as “we have again verified it from the very beginning of the invasion in Ukraine”.
On the battleship Averof, a museum ship symbol of Greek naval history, anchored in Phaleron, near Athens, Naval Group CEO Pierre Éric Pommellet and Greek Vice-Admiral Aristeidis Alexopoulos, Director General of Defense Investments and armaments, first signed the contract for three frigates – baptized Belharra for export. Greek Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos spoke of a “significant step in our bilateral defense cooperation and more generally in relations between France and Greece”.
Against the backdrop of tensions with neighboring Turkey, Greece decided last year to strengthen its military capacity by ordering 24 Rafale combat planes and three frigates from France, for a total amount of more than 5.5 billion euros. . In September, the two countries concluded a “strategic partnership” in Paris, which Florence Parly described on Thursday as a “major asset” to “build a stronger European defense tomorrow”.
“Air superiority is a key success factor”
The frigates designed for high-intensity clashes on the high seas will be built by Naval Group, in Lorient, in western France, to be delivered to the Greek navy in 2025, for the first two, and 2026, for the third. . The contract provides for an optional fourth frigate, the supply of MU90 torpedoes as well as Naval Group support to the Greek Navy.
Dassault Aviation CEO Éric Trappier also made the trip to sign a contract for the delivery of six additional new Rafales, starting in the summer of 2024. The sale of 18 of these combat aircraft had already been signed last year. last, six of which were delivered to Greece, while the others will be fully deployed by the summer of 2023, the aircraft manufacturer said in a press release.
Trappier hailed “the Greek government’s confidence in the Rafale, which is already actively contributing to guaranteeing Greece’s sovereignty and operational independence”. “The war in Ukraine shows how air superiority is a key success factor,” also noted Florence Parly.
Relationships that seem to be calming down
The signing of these new contracts, which alone relate to an amount of more than three billion euros, comes as relations seem to be calming down between Greece and Turkey, who have promised to cooperate more in the face of the economic situation. of the war in Ukraine.
Greece and France began to strengthen their military cooperation in the summer of 2020 to counter Turkish attempts to explore for gas in disputed areas of the eastern Mediterranean. The “strategic partnership” concluded in September between Paris and Athens includes a mutual assistance clause.
Ankara has repeatedly criticized the Franco-Greek agreement, saying it threatens “regional peace and stability”. But an “unexpected” summit in Istanbul between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Greek Prime Minister “helped improve bilateral relations due to the war in Ukraine”, said Christos Rozakis, former vice-president of the European Court human rights (ECHR).