State Department welcomes Greece’s defence upgrade

The US has reacted to Greece’ defence deal with France saying it supports the country’s role in promoting stability in the eastern Mediterranean region. It has also welcomed the fact that Greece, a NATO ally, continues to fulfil the US-led security alliance’s guidelines on defence spending.    

“The US and Greece enjoy a robust defence relationship rooted in our shared values,” a State Department spokesperson told Greek media.

“We strongly support Greece’s role in creating stability in the region and look forward to continuing to work closely with Greece to advance our shared goals for peace and prosperity in the region including through our robust relationship with the Hellenic Navy,” spokesperson said.

“While we have not seen the details of Greece and France’s multi-year defence agreement, we note that the longstanding US-Greece Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement (MDCA) was updated in 2019 to the mutual benefit of our two nations and regional security,” the spokesperson said.

The official added that Athens and Washington have made “very significant progress” on reaching an agreement on potential updates to the MDCA, including extending the agreement indefinitely from its current annual duration that will help advance peace in the region and shared defence and security goals between the two NATO allies.

France and Greece on Tuesday sealed a deal for the latter’s acquisition of three defence and intervention frigates (FDIs) for the Hellenic Navy for €2.9 billion with an option for a fourth.