The Greek government strongly objects to the possible sale of Meteor missiles to Turkey by a consortium with French involvement, Defense Minister Nikos Dendias has told the French ambassador, Laurence Auer.
In a social media post, Dendias said that following a briefing by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis, he held a meeting with Auer at the Defense Ministry and requested “an official update on reports about the sale of Meteor missiles to Turkey by a consortium in which France is participating.”
“I expressed to the French ambassador the strong opposition of Greece to such a possibility, which is not in line with the excellent strategic relations between the two countries,” Dendias said in his post.
The Meteor is a European medium-range air-to-air missiles developed and manufactured by MBDA, a joint French, British and Italian consortium headquartered in Franc, in a collaboration involving Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden.
As Kathimerini has reported recently, Ankara appears to be making its planned acquisition of 40 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets conditional on them being equipped with the Meteor, a bid that, according to the French newspaper La Tribune, is expected to test relations between Athens and Paris.
With its the recent completion of its acquisition of 24 French-made Rafale fighter jets, Greece gained clear air superiority over Turkey and sealed the Athens flight information region from any potential threats.
In its understood that for several months, Turkey has been seeking hardware to counter the Greek Rafale fleet and is now closer than ever to purchasing a supply of Eurofighter Typhoon jets.
Like the Rafale, the Eurofighter can carry powerful weapons such as the Meteor missile, the export of which requires a license from France.
After consultations that lasted almost two years, Ankara seems to have managed to overcome Berlin’s objections, which had placed an embargo on the sale of the Eurofighter to Turkey, and has secured the green light from London, Madrid and Rome to proceed with the acquisition of the Eurofighters.
As is the case with the Eurofighters, exports of the Meteor missile require the consent of all members of the joint venture. While the approval of London and Rome is considered a given by Ankara, Paris, which has the power to veto any sale, seems to be weighing its options given the impact that the possible sale of the weapon to Turkey would have on Greek-French relations, which are governed by the mutual defense cooperation agreement signed by the two countries in 2021.
Recent Turkish reports have claimed that British officials have managed to convince their French counterparts to approve any export of the missiles to Turkey, which would lessen Greece’s current air superiority over Turkey.