ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Greece signed a 2.3 billion euro ($ 2.8 billion) agreement with France on Monday to purchase 18 Rafale fighters, as tensions remain high with the neighboring Turkey.
Florence Parly, the French Defense Minister, signed the agreement in Athens to deliver 12 used aircraft and six new ones built by Dassault Aviation in two years, starting in July.
France has aligned itself with Greece in a dispute over borders in the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean that has brought NATO members, Greece and Turkey, to the brink of war several times in recent decades.
The tension increased again last summer, when a Turkish exploration mission in disputed waters triggered a dangerous military surge.
Greece and Turkey agreed to restart negotiations with the aim of resolving the dispute peacefully. Graduated diplomats from both countries met in Istanbul on Monday to resume the process, which has been halted for almost five years.
But Athens says it will continue with a multi-billion dollar program to modernize its armed forces after years of cuts due to the country’s financial crisis.
France and the United States are competing to supply the Greek navy with new frigates, while the Greek government recently approved plans to cooperate with Israeli defense electronics company Elbit Systems to create a new military flight academy in southern Greece.
“Upgrading the capabilities of the Hellenic Air Force through the acquisition of new fighter jets and the new state-of-the-art training center is critical for Greece to provide a reliable deterrent,” Michael Tanchum, a senior researcher at the Austrian Institute for European Policy Security, he told The Associated Press.
“It also provides Athens with an enhanced ability to exercise more strategic autonomy when EU and NATO structures are considered inadequate, making Greece more of an actor in its own right.”
From May, mandatory national service in the Greek Armed Forces will increase from nine to 12 months to increase the number of people serving in uniform. Parly, who also met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, announced that France would join two Greek military exercises later this year, participating with French air force Rafale jets.
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