Turkey says France-Greece pact risks ‘shaking’ Nato

Turkey spoke out against Nato members forming alliances outside of the organisation after France and Greece signed a five-year defence pact.

Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said yesterday that such arrangements risked shaking Nato, of which Turkey is a member.

Greece and France signed a military and defence pact in September, which included an order for three frigates worth €3 billion ($3.5bn) to be built by France for Greece.

Mr Akar said the pact would harm the 72-year-old alliance.

“Given that we are inside Nato, everyone should know that the search for various alliances outside of it will both cause harm to Nato and our bilateral relations, and shake confidence,” he said.

Greece last year began a military procurement programme that involved the purchase of 18 Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft from France.

The defence agreement with France includes a mutual assistance clause.

It states that the two sides will come to each other’s aid “with all appropriate means at their disposal, and if necessary with the use of armed force, if they jointly ascertain that an armed attack is taking place against the territory of one of the two”.

Greece and Turkey are in dispute over their continental shelves and maritime boundaries.

Relations between the two nations have long been strained over territorial issues in the Eastern Mediterranean, including air space, energy, the status of some Aegean Islands, and the status of Cyprus.

Mr Akar said he recently held a constructive meeting with Nikos Panagiotopoulos, his Greek counterpart, over the disputed waters.

Separately, he said “technical work has been launched” on obtaining Viper F-16 jets from the US, as well as modernising the warplanes Turkey has.

In July 2019, the US said it would remove Turkey from the F-35 Lightning fighter programme after Ankara agreed to buy the Russian-built S400 missile air defence system.