{"id":20313,"date":"2025-04-14T22:12:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T22:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/20313\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T22:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T22:12:14","slug":"greece-strengthens-military-with-16-anti-ship-missiles-from-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/20313\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece strengthens military with 16 anti-ship missiles from France"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-ad__placeholder__logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/logo-euronews-grey-6-180x22.svg.svg+xml\" width=\"180\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Greece has signed a new defence agreement with France on Monday to acquire 16 Exocet anti-ship missiles, the latest in a series of arms purchases aimed at enhancing the country&#8217;s military capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Defence Minister Nikos Dendias signed the deal in Athens on Monday alongside his French counterpart, S\u00e9bastien Lecornu, during his official visit to the Greek capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/icon-cross-10x10-grey-6.svg.svg+xml\" width=\"10\" height=\"10\" alt=\"Close advertising\" fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>While the ministers did not disclose the value of the contract, it marks a continuation of Greece\u2019s growing defence ties with France.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreece does not threaten, but is threatened,\u201d Dendias said in a joint statement to the press, referring to Greece\u2019s fraught relationship with Turkey, with whom it has long-standing disputes over territorial boundaries in the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The two NATO allies have come close to military conflict several times in recent decades.<\/p>\n<p>The missile acquisition adds to Greece&#8217;s broader modernisation programme, which was launched following years of defence spending cuts during the 2010\u20132018 financial crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Previous procurements from France include 24 Rafale fighter jets and three Belharra-class frigates. Dendias noted that discussions are ongoing regarding the potential addition of a fourth frigate, while France is also supplying NH-90 military helicopters.<\/p>\n<p>Athens plans to invest \u20ac25 billion over the next decade to modernise its armed forces and adapt to new forms of high-tech warfare.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in parliament earlier this month, Dendias outlined a shift away from conventional systems toward a more agile and technologically advanced military model \u2014 incorporating AI-powered missile networks, drones and mobile command units.<\/p>\n<p>The defence overhaul spans all branches of the armed forces and reflects Greece\u2019s strategic alignment with key partners, including France, Israel and the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ADVERTISEMENT Greece has signed a new defence agreement with France on Monday to acquire 16 Exocet anti-ship missiles,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2993,2000,299,36,13214],"class_list":{"0":"post-20313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-defence","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-turkiye-greece-relations"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114338617394655839","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}