ATHENS — Greece will spend €25 billion as part of a 12-year defense strategy, in the “most drastic transformation in the history of the country’s armed forces,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced in parliament on Wednesday.
The country’s new defense strategy is based on two key pillars: the integration of advanced defense technologies and the active participation of the Greek defense industry in all arms programs.
“The world is changing at an unpredictable pace,” Mitsotakis said. “We are now facing a different kind of war than we were used to — at least the kind our armed forces were prepared for.”
The new plan aims to modernize Greece’s armed forces as the country emerges from a decade-long financial crisis and tries to keep pace with the defense advances of its neighbor and historical rival, Turkey.
It comes amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s pressure on NATO allies to spend more on defense. Greece already spends more than 3 percent of its GDP on its military, more than double the EU average.
Mitsotakis criticized Europe’s approach to defense over recent decades, arguing that “Europe has been geopolitically naive” and “failed to understand geopolitical contexts.” The continent is scrambling to deter the challenge posed by Russia and to support Ukraine while Trump retreats from America’s traditional foreign policy.
“In 2017, the then and current U.S. president, in the peculiar way of expressing himself, spoke a great truth: that after the fall of the [Berlin]Wall and the collapse of socialism, Europe ceded its defense obligations to the United States, without the EU fulfilling its obligation to NATO,” he said.
“Europe cannot pretend today and say in this jungle that it is a herbivore in the midst of carnivores.”
Greece’s arms procurement, which will extend to 2036, will have a strong cyber focus and will include unmanned vehicles, loitering munitions, drones, a communications satellite, as well as an anti-missile, anti-aircraft and anti-drone defense dome called the “Achilles’ Shield.”
Mitsotakis also said the critical role of the Greek arms industry in future arms programs is “a non-negotiable condition for any major defense investment.”
To allow for more spending, the European Commission has said it will invoke the EU’s national escape clause, which prevents military spending from being counted in the bloc’s punitive mechanism for countries that violate EU spending limits.
Mitsotakis called it an important initiative that provides budgetary flexibility, but said that the measure does not end all need for restraint.
“The ultimate judge is the markets and the sustainability of our debt. The flexibility must be used sparingly so as not to derail our path,” he said.
Greece’s government has so far supported European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s defense program and is not actively involved in the group of other Southern European countries seeking to boost military spending based on grants rather than loans to avoid increasing their debt burdens.
Mitsotakis said the EU should eventually discuss the creation of a fund to focus on financing projects of common European interest, such as the creation of a European anti-missile shield.
“But we are not there yet,” he added.
Last week, Greece announced the first pay raise for its armed forces in 14 years, a move aimed at attracting young talent to the ranks.
But the reform was met with controversy within the ruling New Democracy party, with MPs and ministers revolting and demanding that the pay hikes be extended to other uniformed personnel. Mitsotakis said further increases would be announced in September, but added that fiscal flexibility should not — and would not — lead to excesses.
“Not only because the markets are watching us closely, but also because the overall performance of the economy is a crucial factor for security and stability,” he said.
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