Greek and French Defence Ministers declare united front

Greek and French Defence Ministers, Nikos Panagiotopoulos and Florence Parly, denounced Turkey’s illegal actions in the Eastern Mediterranean during their meeting in Athens on Monday.

Panagiotopoulos and Parly said that they had a complete convergence of views as regards the ways through which the security challenges in the region of the Eastern Mediterranean could be tackled.

They stressed that bilateral military cooperation is at an excellent level, expected to be reinforced by France’s and Greece’s decision to hold a considerable number of annual joint military exercises and trainings.

As regards the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Turkey and the Tripoli-based government of Libya for the delimitation of maritime zones in the Mediterranean, Greek Defence Minister said that any political solution in Libya presupposes the annulment of this memorandum.

On her part, Minister Parly noted that the EU and France have strongly denounced the Turkey-Libya memorandum, while expressing the view that France’s naval presence in the region deters unilateral actions, such as Turkey’s actions in maritime zones that are not under its sovereignty.

She also said that France is holding discussions with Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Egypt for the reinforcement of its naval presence in the region.