Souda Bay – Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis touted a plan to upgrade the Aegean nation’s fleet of American-made F-16 fighter jets amid a series of standoffs with historic rival and fellow NATO alliance member Turkey.
“It is a very sensitive area that has been recently tried by Turkey’s aggressiveness with provocative actions,” Mitsotakis said Tuesday after a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “The Greek response to provocative actions is always a defense of our international rights … It is a policy that is, in fact, welcomed by all our neighbors and allies.”
Mitsotakis delivered his sharp rebuke of Turkish jockeying for control of energy-rich waterways in the Eastern Mediterranean following his first official visit to the United States military facilities at Souda Bay, which he dubbed “both the heart of Greece and the Mediterranean beat and also the strong heartbeat of US-Greek cooperation.” And he boasted that military cooperation between Athens and Washington would be “spearheaded by the modernization of the F-16 aircraft” and joint operations.
“In the skies, both Greek and U.S. will be flying as guarantors of stability,” Mitsotakis said. “It is not by chance that we have a Greek aircraft and U.S. aircraft flying, sharing the same runway.”
The prime minister delivered the message in a hangar, just weeks after Greek officials announced that Turkish warplanes, including six Turkish F-16s, had violated Greek airspace more than 30 times in a single day. Another incident between the two air forces culminated in a “mock dogfight” last month.
The Greek F-16 parked behind Mitsotakis functioned as a reminder that the plan to provide Athens with “the most advanced F-16s in Europe,” as Lockheed Martin described the Greek upgrades, presents a challenge to the Turkish threats, especially in light of President Trump’s decision to expel Turkey from the F-35 stealth fighter program in response to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s purchase of advanced anti-aircraft missiles systems from Russia.
“We, the Americans, look to Greece as a true pillar for stability and prosperity in the Eastern Mediterranean, and we are incredibly proud to support its leadership,” Pompeo told reporters. “Our security cooperation has grown tremendously, indeed by leaps and bounds.”
Pompeo emphasized that the U.S. “strongly support[s]” negotiations to end the tensions between Ankara and Athens, and Mitsotakis agreed that he is “cautiously optimistic that the time of diplomacy has come,” but he rooted that diplomatic opportunity in Turkey’s alienation from other neighboring powers.
“At a time when old enemies are becoming friends, as in the case of Israel with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, there should be no surging waves of threat and rivalry in the region,” Mitsotakis said.
