India kicks Turkey out of its navy shipyard projects – An axis with Greece is emerging?

The exit of Anadolu Shipyard from a large construction program of five fleet support vessels for the Indian Navy was silent but evident.

In 2020, the Turkish company signed a technical consultant contract with Hindustan Shipping Limited (HAL), the Indian shipyard that had undertaken the construction of the vessels, each 44-45,000 tons and having a total project value of 2.1 billion dollars. However, HAL started the construction of the first vessel this year on April 10 without any Turkish participation.

Indian media reported that the Turkish shipyard is no longer participating as New Delhi is unhappy with Ankara’s consistent stance in favour of Pakistan. Turkey and Pakistan have close political and military relations, while Turkish companies have made large sales of weapons systems to India’s enemy, such as the Ada-class corvettes.

Thus, in a long-standing confrontation with Pakistan, India could not support the Turkish military-industrial complex either.

This development is the opposite of New Delhi’s tightening of relations with Athens, evidenced by the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Greece last year and the reciprocation of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to India earlier this year.

At the same time, Dimitrios Choupis, the chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff, recently visited New Delhi, where he signed a historical Cooperation Agreement.

These developments are being interpreted as a willingness by New Delhi to create an anti-Turkish “axis.”

Added to the rumours was Greece’s intention to buy Indian-made BrahMos anti-ship missiles. However, this remains particularly difficult as a Russian license will be required since the missile is an Indo-Russian joint venture.

In any case, the tightening of relations between Greece and India is important and must evolve, as the South Asian country is already a global player and a great pole of power.

Christos Ktenas is a columnist for Naval Defence. Translated by Paul Antonopoulos.

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