Handelsblatt op-ed focuses on Greece’s massive military build-up amid fears of escalation with Turkey. Publications also for Cyprus: new deposit and golden visas.
On the occasion of the recent visit of the Greek Minister of Defense Nikos Panagiotopoulos in Washington in July and his contacts with the American arms giant Lockheed Martin, which manufactures the state-of-the-art fighters F-35, the financial newspaper Handelsblatt focuses on Greece’s ambitious armament plans in an extensive report. “Right now, Greece is negotiating with the US for the delivery of 20 ultra-modern fighters. Athens would like to have an additional 20 aircraft as an option. The government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis thus heralds the next round of the largest armament program in the country’s recent history,” the report notes.
As he observes: “Prime Minister Mitsotakis wants to arm his country against Turkey, which is becoming more and more aggressive” while at another point he notes: “With the armaments, Mitsotakis also wants to strengthen the strategic role of his country as his stronghold NATO in the eastern Mediterranean – in competition with Turkey, which because of Erdogan’s turn away from the West, his proximity to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin and Erdogan’s arms deals with Russia, is becoming an increasingly problematic partner for the alliance ».
However, according to the UK, “for Greece, however, the procurement of fighters is a difficult, financial undertaking. Together with their overall equipment and the required infrastructure, the first 20 aircraft will cost around 3.8 billion euros – a lot of money for the heavily indebted country.” According to Panagiotis Tsakonas, Professor of International Relations at the University of Athens, “to these are added the frigates, the Rafale and the modernization of the Leopard. But Greece can still bear the cost, because the weapons supplies will be spread over the next four to five years.”
Without a solution to the Cyprus dispute, the fields are lost
There are many journalistic reports in the German press about Cyprus yesterday and today, about different aspects of the current affairs. The discovery of a huge natural gas field off the coast of Cyprus is extensively covered by news networks. n-tv reports among other things: “The new field gives the EU countries the opportunity to become independent from Russian natural gas supplies. However, another year will have to pass before its exploitation begins.”
The German network observes: “Already in 2011, the American company Noble Energy had identified large natural gas fields in the EEZ of Cyprus, drilling further east of the field that has now been identified. Since then, however, a dispute has erupted with neighboring Turkey over the exploitation of raw materials (…) As long as there is no solution to the Cyprus issue, Ankara is blocking the exploitation of natural gas fields, as well as the research for further fields”.
Cypriot “golden passports” again in the news
“Cyprus granted thousands of people ‘golden passports’. Applicants had to pay a total of at least 2.5 million euros. The Republic of Cyprus has illegally distributed thousands of documents in recent years,” reports Spiegel Online.
According to the publication, “golden passports” often act as loopholes for wealthy Russians: From 2007 to 2020, Cyprus provided 3,517 individuals and 3,810 close relatives with the corresponding documents. A very large number of these citizenship procedures were “illegal naturalizations.”
DW – Dimitra Kyranoudis, Berlin
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