{"id":9707,"date":"2026-04-28T08:14:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/9707\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T08:14:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:14:32","slug":"france-and-greece-further-strengthen-mutual-defense-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/9707\/","title":{"rendered":"France and Greece Further Strengthen Mutual Defense Ties"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

France and Greece have further strengthened defense ties, extending their mutual defense agreement from 2021 and signing several cooperation agreements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Maximos Mansion in Athens over the weekend to cement the strategic partnership.<\/p>\n

The defense pact, which will be automatically renewed after its expiration in five years, commits either country to aid the other in the face of security threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t even ask yourself the question; whatever happens, we will be there on your side,\u201d Macron said during the joint press conference, as Mitsotakis called France \u201cGreece\u2019s true ally,\u201d Politico reported<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moreover, both countries\u2019 leaders signed agreements centered on cooperation in several areas, including education, scientific research, and nuclear energy.<\/p>\n

Macron and Mitsotakis, along with French Defense and Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin and Naval Group CEO Pierre-Eric Pommelet, also visited the Hellenic Navy\u2019s FDI frigate at the Piraeus port.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Greece is the first export customer of France\u2019s FDI frigate program<\/a>, being built by French shipbuilder Naval Group.<\/p>\n

Athens received its first of four FDI frigates<\/a>, designated the Kimon-class within the Hellenic Navy, in December 2025.<\/p>\n

Missile Support<\/p>\n

During the latest visit, MBDA signed a contract to continue support services for the MICA missiles.<\/p>\n

Greece has maintained a long-standing relationship with MBDA for over 50 years, becoming the first customer of the Exocet anti-ship missile<\/a> in 1968.<\/p>\n

The country then ordered MICA multi-mission air-to-air missiles in the early 2000s, integrating them into the Hellenic forces\u2019 Mirage 2000-5 and Dassault Rafale fighter jets.<\/p>\n

In 2023, MBDA opened<\/a> a permanent office in Athens to strengthen its support for the Hellenic military and local industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mutual Defense<\/p>\n

Both leaders also discussed the European Union\u2019s Article 42.7 mutual defense clause and NATO\u2019s Article 5 collective defense clause.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Macron emphasized Article 42.7 as \u201cclear\u201d with \u201cno room \u200cfor interpretation or \u200cambiguity,\u201d citing recent joint aid to Cyprus after a drone attack against a British airbase<\/a> on the island during the US-Israel attacks on Iran as proof.<\/p>\n

He said this makes it stronger than NATO\u2019s Article 5, which has been the topic of controversy amid an \u201cincreasingly erratic US under Donald Trump,\u201d according<\/a> to The Guardian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France and Greece have further strengthened defense ties, extending their mutual defense agreement from 2021 and signing several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[36,5,4893,4039,7597],"class_list":{"0":"post-9707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-emmanuel-macron","9":"tag-france","10":"tag-greece","11":"tag-mbda","12":"tag-mica-missile"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}