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    Categories: 2021

Greece, US Expand Defense Pact in Face of Turkey Tensions

Military News


15 Oct 2021
Associated Press | By Ellen Knickmeyer

WASHINGTON — The United States and Greece signed a deal Thursday
expanding their defense cooperation agreement to grant U.S. forces
broader use of Greek bases, as that nation deals with tensions between
it and neighboring Turkey.

The deal, signed in Washington by Secretary of State Antony Blinken
and Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, will allow U.S. forces to
train and operate "in an expanded capacity" at four additional bases
in Greece, Dendias said.

“This is not an agreement…against anybody else,” Dendias said in an
interview with The Associated Press after the signing ceremony,
although he noted the new agreement put a U.S. military presence just
miles (kilometers) from Turkey. ”It’s an agreement between Greece and
the United States of America, and the purpose of the agreement is the
stability and prosperity of both our countries.”

Greece is pinning much of its defense strategy on close military
cooperation with France and the United States as it remains locked in
a volatile dispute with Turkey over sea and airspace boundaries. Greek
officials also have been actively pursuing other international
agreements, with partners in the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere.

Blinken at Thursday’s signing ceremony called the U.S. and Greece “two
proud, strong NATO allies, both deeply committed to our alliance.”
Thursday’s agreement, building on an existing one, will run for five
years with automatic renewal, Greek officials said.

NATO – the North Atlantic defense bloc to which the U.S., Turkey,
France and Greece all belong – is built on the idea of collective
defense, so that an attack on one member nation is considered an
attack at all.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg earlier this month appeared to
criticize Greece’s newly ratified mutual defense agreement with
France, without naming the two countries. “What I don’t believe in is
efforts to try to do something outside the NATO framework, or compete
with or duplicate NATO,” Stoltenberg said then.

Dendias, speaking at the residence attached to the Greek Embassy in
Washington, said Greece's mutual defense deal with France “is an
agreement that is complementary to NATO."

“It does not diminish the role of NATO,” he added.

NATO members Greece and Turkey are at odds over sea boundaries and
mineral rights in the eastern Mediterranean, spurring Athens to launch
a major spending program to modernize its armed forces.

Turkey in turn accuses Greece of overstating its own territorial
claims to the Aegean and other waters.

Thursday's US-Greece agreement builds on one signed in Athens two
years ago by Blinken’s predecessor, Mike Pompeo, and will give the
United States increased access to two bases in central Greece and one
at Alexandroupolis, near the Greek-Turkish border. The U.S. naval base
at Souda Bay, in the Greek island of Crete is also key to the defense
relationship.

The Greek push to build alliances comes as the United States tries to
turn more of its international focus to competition with China,
reducing its military strength in some other parts of the world.

The Greek government understands the United States' need to pay more
attention to China and the Indo-Pacific overall — but argues that
Greece's neighborhood is one American forces shouldn't leave, Dendias
said.

“If the American presence is not manifested, some countries may have
clever ideas about their role,” envisioning themselves as “local
superpowers,” he said. “I am sometimes afraid that Turkey may be
falling under that category.”


 

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