Greece will receive the first F-35s by 2028 “if everything goes according to plan,” former National Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos said today.

Speaking about the rebalancing between Greece and Turkey in the air, he said: “With the Rafale that we are acquiring and Turkey will not acquire, with the Viper program that we have advanced and Turkey is still waiting for the green light to start negotiations, with those F- 35, which we will receive, the green light is given, the procedural moments remain, and the neighbors are excluded from this program, as you understand, we are in a very good place, in the air.”

He stressed that channels of communication with Turkey “through messages or direct communication” must remain “open”.

Referring to the interim government, he indicated that “Mr. Stefanis, the Minister of Defense, sought from the very beginning to use this channel of communication with the new Minister of Defense of Turkey.” “Communication channels are especially useful in times of tension to make an effort to defuse it,” he said in an interview with SKAI.