Greece and the United States are holding talks to revise the bilateral Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement (MDCA).
The talks mainly concern military bases hosting and supporting US forces.
Athens has long wanted to convince US forces to be based on islands, but, with the exception of Crete, site of NATO’s Naval Support Activity at Souda Bay, in the western part of the island, the US armed forces refuse to contemplate a presence on the islands. Greece is still insisting on the island of Skyros as a possible base. Four members of the US House of Representatives, three of them Greek-Americans (Grace Meng, Gus Bilirakis, Dina Titus and Nicole Malliotakis) have introduced a bill that aims to establish the presence of US forces on Aegean Sea islands.
The destruction of the infrastructure of the Greek base hosting the 1st Army Air Forces Brigade in by a severe storm in September 2023, including the repairs facilities for the brigade’s helicopters, makes finding new installations to host US helicopters necessary. This will mean expanding the capacity of the 110th Air Wing in Larissa.
Greek officials agree that there is also room for two new bases to be used by US forces. One would be the Petrochori firing range (photo), already familiar to US Forces using it for field exercises; US officers are also showing interest in the Dalipis Army Base, just east of Thessaloniki, in northern Greece, formerly home to a Greek armored division. Some sort of headquarters for a US unit could be installed there.
US forces will remain in the northeastern port of Alexandroupoli, which, due to its relative proximity to eastern Europea countries, including Ukraine, is considered of high strategic importance. The US is also on course to spend $42 million to upgrade installations in the Souda base and the nearby 115th Air Wing, including new repair facility for Special Forces craft.
Greece appears set to avoid spending cuts announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and which will affect other installations in Europe. The Souda base is a major NATO installation and the 115th Air Wing was crucial to recent US Air Force operations in the Middle East and Iran.