ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Saturday announced a “robust” arms purchase program and an overhaul of the country’s military amid rising tension with Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean.
What appears to be Greece’s most ambitious military overhaul in nearly two decades was unveiled as it is engaged in a growing stand-off with Turkey over hydrocarbon resources and naval influence in the waters off their coasts.
The bitter row between the NATO allies has roped in other European countries and even sparked fears of more severe conflict.
“The time has come to reinforce the armed forces... these initiatives constitute a robust program that will become a national shield,” Mitsotakis said in a keynote address in the northern city of Thessaloniki.
Mitsotakis said Greece would acquire 18 French-made Rafale warplanes, four multi-purpose frigates and four navy helicopters, while also recruiting 15,000 new troops and pouring resources into the national arms industry and cyber-attack defense.
New anti-tank weapons, navy torpedoes and airforce missiles will be secured, the PM said in what appears to be Greece’s most ambitious military overhaul in nearly two decades.
The initiative, which includes upgrades of another existing four frigates, is also designed to create thousands of jobs, he said.
More details on the cost of the program and origin of the weapons purchases will be announced at a news conference Sunday, a government source told AFP.
Greece’s last equivalent purchase spree was in the early 2000s with deals brokered or explored for German tanks and submarines, American warplanes and Russian defensive missiles and hovercrafts.
But most of these plans were shelved owing to the cost of organizing the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
Some of the agreements were dogged by corruption and bribery claims that were later investigated by parliament. Two former Greek defense ministers were subsequently jailed as a result of the probes.
Mitsotakis is believed to have hammered out the program announced on Saturday after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron during a southern European leaders summit in Corsica this week.
In contrast to other EU and NATO allies, France has strongly backed Greece in its burgeoning showdown with Turkey, as well as Cyprus.
Macron has told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to cross “red lines” and has sent warships and fighter jets to the region.
Defense Minister Florence Parly welcomed the arms deal, saying it was the first time a European country had bought the Rafale warplanes.
Mitsotakis has previously said NATO’s “hands-off approach” in not taking sides in the dispute was “profoundly unfair.”
Turkey in August sent an exploration ship and a small navy flotilla to conduct seismic research in waters which Greece considers its own under postwar treaties.
Greece responded by shadowing the Turkish flotilla with its own warships, and by staging naval exercises with several EU allies and the United Arab Emirates in its own show of force.
Turkey “threatens” Europe’s eastern border and “undermines” regional security, Mitsotakis said Saturday.
In an article published in The Times, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Le Monde this week, Mitsotakis reiterated his desire for dialogue with Turkey, provided it stops acting “like a provocateur.”
“We do need dialogue, but not when held at gunpoint,” Mitsotakis wrote.
“If we cannot agree then we must seek resolution at the (International Court of Justice at the) Hague,” he said.
Last month, Greece ratified a maritime border pact with Egypt seen as a response to a 2019 Turkish-Libyan accord allowing Turkey access to areas in the eastern Mediterranean where large hydrocarbon deposits have been discovered.
Both Greece and Turkey have rejected each other’s respective agreements as null and void.
EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell has said that unless Turkey can be engaged in talks, the bloc could develop a list of sanctions at a European summit on September 24 and 25.
Greece announces major arms purchase as Turkey tension rises
https://arab.news/ypmr4
Greece announces major arms purchase as Turkey tension rises
- The bitter row between the NATO allies has roped in other European countries and even sparked fears of more severe conflict
- Mitsotakis said Greece would acquire 18 French-made Rafale warplanes, four multi-purpose frigates and four navy helicopters, while also recruiting 15,000 new troops
Myanmar, Afghan hopeful scholars mourn UK study visa ban
- Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sudan and Cameroon citizens will be barred from obtaining university visas
- Britain’s travel block is “really painful” for Afghan women hoping to escape to an education abroad, said one female
YANGON, Myanmar: Aspiring students are lamenting Britain’s ban on education visas for their war-weary countries — dashing dreams of bettering themselves and their home nations.
Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sudan and Cameroon citizens will be barred from obtaining university visas, London announced this week, saying asylum applications by visiting students had “rocketed” nearly 500 percent from 2021 to 2025.
“It’s like the country is punishing the weak, the most vulnerable people,” said one woman from Myanmar.
She was preparing for a scholarship interview for a master’s in climate change finance when her plans were upended by Downing Street’s decree on Wednesday.
“I could not focus the whole morning,” the 28-year-old told AFP from Yangon, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons in a country riven by civil war since a 2021 military coup.
“I can’t picture my future.”
Like in much of the developed world, immigration has become a divisive issue in Britain.
Efforts to beat back arrivals mirror the sweeping travel bans issued by US President Donald Trump which have shut out citizens of Myanmar, Sudan and Afghanistan.
Since the chaotic military withdrawal of Britain, the United States and other NATO nations in 2021, Afghanistan has been ruled by a resurgent Taliban government which has banned women over age 12 from attending school.
Britain’s travel block is “really painful” for Afghan women hoping to escape to an education abroad, said one female child social worker in Ghazni province, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.
She has now canceled her plans to study for a master’s in both the US and the UK.
“Now I am trying to be hopeful, but I think it would also be a mistake,” said the 27-year-old.
In the summer of 2024, Arefa Mohammadi fled to neighboring Pakistan, living in limbo as she applied to universities.
She got an offer to study public health in England but now cannot accept it.
“It was truly shocking for me,” said the 24-year-old.
“This situation put me in a place where I haven’t any goals, because all my goals and all my futures are unpredictable.”
- ‘Cruel and short-sighted’ -
In Kabul, a 39-year-old man faces similar heartbreak.
He was accepted to study specialist subjects related to water management at three universities in England and Scotland.
“When I was a child I witnessed several challenges like flash floods, water scarcity, environmental neglect, inefficient irrigation systems,” he said, asking to remain anonymous for security reasons. “To address these challenges I made my application.”
“I hoped to acquire modern knowledge. It’s impossible to acquire in Afghanistan,” he added.
Some 33 million people in the country face severe water shortages, aid agencies say, a result of compounding multi-year droughts, climate change and infrastructure battered by decades of war.
Britain’s Labour government made the decision to curb visas as the right-wing Reform UK party surges in opinion polls with its hard-line stance against immigration.
The UK Home Office said almost 135,000 asylum seekers had entered the country through legal routes since 2021.
Activist organization Burma Campaign UK called the visa ban “exceptionally cruel and shortsighted.”
“The opportunity to come to the UK to study is life-changing for the individual student but also an investment in the future of Myanmar,” said program director Zoya Phan in a statement.
One exiled Myanmar journalist has been living over the border in Thailand after escaping the military rule which has clamped down on press freedoms.
“When the military coup happened I was just 22, so I had a lot of dreams,” she said. “But over the past five years there have been a lot of struggles — I couldn’t complete my dreams.”
Every year since the junta takeover she applied for further education to buoy her spirits.
But she received an email Thursday morning canceling her place to study for a master’s at a London university.
“Everything is gone,” she said. “My UK dream is all disappeared.”
