A few days ago, exactly on January 14, the Greek parliament gave the green light to the purchase of 18 French Dassault fighter-bombers Flurry, of which 6 new and 12 used, for a total of approximately 2,5 billion euros. It should be remembered that, previously, the Greek parliament had voted in favor of the increase in military spending for 2021.
The first planes are expected to arrive by summer 2021.
This important agreement demonstrates how the axis between Athens and Paris is increasingly being strengthened; at the same time it is also a very strong message addressed to Ankara, given its geo-strategic ambitions in the Mediterranean chessboard, which inevitably lead it to clash with other nations present in the area, also very determined to protect and pursue their interests national. It should be emphasized that, on 25 January, diplomatic talks between Greeks and Turks should resume in Istanbul to find a solution regarding the situation in the eastern Mediterranean which has been tense for many months now.
With the acquisition of French fighters, and more generally with the massive investments in defense (which I mentioned earlier) it can be said that the objective of the Greek government is to modernize and improve its armed forces, and at the same time try to reduce the gap, from a war point of view, with rival nations. Through this politico-military strategy - to which must be added a network of alliances with France, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates in an anti-Turkish key - Athens tries to play an important role in an increasingly unstable Mediterranean, where more countries are trying to to assert their interests and their requests also resorting to the military instrument as a deterrent.
Photo: Ministère des Armées
