Article 2 Greco-French agreement to establish a strategic partnership and cooperation in the field of security and defense, which provides for defense assistance, will be activated in the event of an armed attack on GreeceThis was stated yesterday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France. Ekaterina Column in response to a question, shortly before the start of lengthy negotiations with his colleague Nikos Dendias and service rates. Ms. Colonna noted that “we are doing everything in our power to avoid this situation”, but added that “if something like this happens, we have indeed signed an agreement on mutual strategic cooperation, and Article 2 describes exactly this case and says that if both sides discover that there is an armed attack on the territory of one or the other country, there is mutual assistance. Ms Colonna said that during her stop in Turkey before her trip to Athens, she stressed to her colleague Mevlut Cavusoglu the need to reduce tensions.

Mr. Dendias, for his part, listed the Turkish challenges in numbers, noting that more than 6,100 violations were committed in 2022 alone. Considering that by the end of July there were 4734 violations (report by G. Burdar in “K” of August 27), it becomes clear that in August alone, the month of the alleged moratorium, almost 1,400 violations were recorded.

Previously Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, during a conversation with Slovak President Zuzana Caputova, he stressed that it is unacceptable for Greece to receive threats that go so far as to call into question the sovereignty of Greece from a country that is a NATO ally. Mr. Mitsotakis then met with Ms. Kolonas, who, according to government sources, informed her of Turkish aggression and official threats against Greek sovereignty, noting that Turkey was creating tension, undermining security and stability in the region.

*In the previous version of the article, article 21 of the Greco-French agreement was erroneously mentioned, while the correct article is article 2.