The announcement of elections does not particularly disrupt – at any rate – the limited range of initiatives that could be taken or planned in sensitive areas of foreign policy and national defense. Sta Greek-Turkish the trend towards the need for normalization has already begun, but further initiatives will be taken after the elections in both countries. Some high-level contacts are expected ahead of the elections, as the prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis plans to meet with the President of France Emmanuel Macron but also Prime Minister of Italy Georgia Meloni.

Foreign Secretary Nikos Dendias he will be in Nicosia on Friday for a trilateral meeting with his counterparts from the Republic of Cyprus and Israel, and in the near future the foreign ministers of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will visit Athens separately. is being discussed. . A NATO meeting at the level of foreign ministers is scheduled for April 4-5, on the sidelines of which no one excludes the repetition of the four-four between Mr. Dendiash and Mevlut Cavusoglu. Recall that there is another unresolved Greek-Turkish case, in particular, the visit of the Minister of National Defense Nikos Panagiotopoulos to Turkey and his meeting with his colleague Hulusi Akar in the areas affected by the earthquake.

Before the May 21st confrontation, Mr. Mitsotakis is expected to meet Em. Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

V Ministry of Defence there are a lot of unresolved cases, however, based on a very narrow horizon until May 21, it is almost impossible to make a decision on new technology. It is worth noting that an American response to Greece’s F-35 (LoA) request is expected within the next 24 hours, although it is not yet clear whether Athens will eventually request the participation of a domestic defense industry related to the fifth generation fighter in parallel. It is quite clear that in the pre-election period the choice of a French or Italian corvette for the Navy cannot be announced, despite the fact that both at the level of the GENERAL and at the level of the government there is a clear preference between the two. It also remains to be seen whether the legally pending issue of torpedoes will be closed in the pre-election period to proceed without further hindrance from suppliers.

Smaller contracts

In addition to these major programs to strengthen the Armed Forces, there are a number of smaller contracts that GEETHA wishes to promote, such as the AAV-7 amphibious fighting vehicles, for which there is already a green light from the State Department. , but also the Black Hawk helicopters that lie on the table. And in this case, of course, discussions with the Americans of a final agreement should follow.