Greece buys three warships from France for 3 billion euros

Greece to buy three new warships to be built from France. This was announced by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday during a press conference in Paris, Reuters news agency reported. The deal is worth approximately 3 billion euros. For France, the sale of the ships represents a small financial windfall after a previously failed military deal with Australia.

The deal, signed by Mitsotakis and French President Emmanuel Macron, is partly intended to promote European military cooperation. France, in particular, is pushing for more cooperation in order to improve Europe’s position vis-à-vis the United States and China. According to Macron, the deal contributes to European peace and security, among other things, Mitsotakis says the deal will “connect the countries for decades”. He spoke of a “historic day for Greece and France”. The contract states that Greece may buy a fourth ship from France.

The €3 billion deal is dwarfed by the €56 billion that France and Australia had agreed for the purchase of twelve submarines. The Australian government canceled this deal earlier this month, unexpectedly for France, because of the Aukus pact with the United States. Part of this pact is that Australia will have a fleet of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines. In France, the sale was called the “contract of the century.” According to French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, France has therefore been “stabbed in the back”.