Turkey puts in guard against the “formation of foreign alliances” that harm NATO

“Forming alliances outside the alliance” would harm the organization, said Hulusi Akar, a Turkish defense minister, a NATO member, in comments published Saturday.

Akar’s statement, released today by the Turkish defense ministry, came after Greece and France signed a defense deal last month.

Last September, Greece and France, which are also members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), concluded a strategic military and defense cooperation agreement that includes Athens’ request for the purchase of three French frigates for a worth around three billion euros.

The signing of the defense agreement between Greece and France in Paris last month

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said this month that the deal will allow the two countries to help each other in case of external threat.

In a press statement following a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels last week and released today, the Turkish defense minister said: “In light of the fact that we are within NATO, everyone should know that looking for alliances. different outside of it will damage NATO and our bilateral relations and shake confidence “.

There is a dispute between Greece and Turkey over continental shelves and maritime borders. The two countries resumed preliminary contacts on their differences at the beginning of quest’year. Akar said he had a “constructive encounter with his Greek counterpart in this context “.

A Turkish drill ship sparked a crisis last summer between Turkey, Greece and Cyprus

Akar added: “We have had positive and constructive talks with the Greek Defense Minister. We expect to see positive results from these talks in the next period.”

On the other hand, Akar said that “technical work has begun” to obtain “Viper F-16” aircraft from the United States, as well as modernizing the warplanes currently owned by Turkey.

Last week, the United States did not confirm a statement by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which claimed Washington had made an offer to Ankara to sell him F-16 fighters, but claimed it had not made an offer to Turkey to finance warplanes.

Erdogan had previously claimed that the United States had proposed to sell F-16 fighters to Turkey in exchange of its investments in the F-35 program, from which Ankara was excluded after purchasing the S-400 missile defense systems from Russia.