{"id":728614,"date":"2026-01-29T13:09:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/728614\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T13:09:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:09:28","slug":"greece-france-to-expand-military-cooperation-sign-mutual-defense-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/728614\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece, France to expand military cooperation, sign mutual defense deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"600\" class=\"picture-main-block-image\" data-nxsrc=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5008577-scaled.jpg?v=1769689286\" alt=\"Greece, France to expand military cooperation, sign mutual defense deal\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5008577-960x600.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias and France&#8217;s visiting Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautrin speak following a meeting Thursday on Greece&#8217;s new French-made Kimon frigate. [Nikos Halkiopoulos\/InTime News] <\/p>\n<p>Greece and France propose to update and expand their military cooperation agreement with a mutual defense clause within the next couple of months, officials said Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have agreed to conclude the negotiations very fast, within one or two months, and then sign\u201d the agreement, Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said. \u201cIt will include a clause for mutual defense assistance, military cooperation and cooperation in the defense industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said Greece was planning to expand its joint military maneuvers with France, and was discussing joint action on air defense, satellites, unmanned systems, electronic warfare and missile defense.<\/p>\n<p>Dendias spoke after talks with France\u2019s Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautrin, during a visit to Greece\u2019s newly-delivered, French-made Kimon FDI frigate.<\/p>\n<p>Both said that the renewed agreement would boost stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean.<\/p>\n<p>Dendias said the four Kimon-class frigates that Greece has ordered from France will be upgraded to carry strategic weapons. \u201cThe decision for the FDI programme is not just about military procurements but the way in which Greece protects its sovereignty and its sovereign rights,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Vautrin said Greek-French defense cooperation promoted regional stability. \u201cWe do not want tension in the Eastern Mediterranean, and must remain vigilant tothat purpose,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will continue to defend the rights of Greece and France. Our cooperation is among the most successful at a European level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias and France&#8217;s visiting Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautrin speak following a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[473,2000,299,12072,36,162328,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-728614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-defense","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-foreign-affairs","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-nikos-dendias","14":"tag-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115978552205168745","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728614","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=728614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}