ATHENS (AFP) – Greece will buy two Italian Bergamini frigates “to reinforce its naval capabilities,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday, as the NATO member ramps up defense spending.
Besides the two new ships, Greece’s foreign affairs and defense council has approved the modernization of the country’s existing German-made ThyssenKrupp MEKO frigates and an update to the armed forces’ encryption software, Mitsotakis added.
The purchases have to be rubber-stamped by the Greek parliament, where the conservative prime minister’s New Democracy party enjoys an absolute majority.
In response to the security woes besetting the Middle East, across the Mediterranean from Greece, Athens has sought to bolster its armed forces.
Historically a significant client of both US and European arms manufacturers, Greece is one of four NATO countries to devote more than three percent of GDP to defense, behind Poland, Estonia and Latvia.
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