With the reminder of Athens’ firm adherence to “international law and respect for states” and in any case not by chance, they responded instant diplomatic sources to Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharovaafter her sudden and unprecedented provocation, against the backdrop of the Greece-Ukraine agreement regarding the development of unmanned aerial vehicles.
Threats are rejected
“Greece in its international relations always acts based on adherence to international law and respect for states” described diplomatic sources, pointing out that “it is a self-evident right of every state to conclude interstate agreements. Especially when the agreements, like the one between Greece and Ukraine, guarantee energy sufficiency and security, which is a condition of human well-being”. Threats against sovereign states are automatically rejected” concluded categorically, after the unprecedented provocation from the Russian side. It should be noted that the Spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova reported that “Greece follows a “confrontational policy towards Russia and carries out frankly hostile actions”. She added that “Athens was one of the first capitals to send weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, which the armed forces of Ukraine use every day against civilians in the Donbass, the regions of Zaporizhia, Kherson, Crimea and other southern regions of our country”. “And all this despite the fact that Greeks have lived in these areas since time immemorial,” he concluded.
At the same time, in her statements broadcast by the TASS agency, “another confirmation was the so-called agreements with the Nazi regime of Kiev on November 17, among other things, on the development and use of maritime unmanned aerial vehicles,” Ms. Zakharova added. “This step, like many other anti-Russian actions of the collective Western world aimed at defeating Russia on the battlefield, received the necessary assessment from our side and the appropriate reaction will follow,” he concluded.
The occasion
The reason for this provocative attitude on the part of the Spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was the bilateral agreement between Greece and Ukraine on cooperation in the field of defense technology, given the rapid technological progress that Kiev has made, possessing high expertise in an emerging field for military practice. Specifically, in the Mitsotakis-Zelensky joint statement last Sunday, after the end of the Ukrainian president’s visit to Athens, it is stated that “the parties agreed to deepen defense cooperation with a focus on strengthening security in the maritime sector, including cooperation in the development and use of maritime unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in conducting joint exercises and trainings related to unmanned maritime systems, as well as in enhanced exchange of information on maritime threats’. However, Mrs. Zakharova’s unprecedented reaction cannot be explained in terms of regional balances either, given that there are not a few countries that have developed defense cooperation with Ukraine for years or maintain strong bilateral relations from which commercial benefits also arise, including Turkey, without ever having provoked a corresponding reaction from Moscow. Furthermore, the bilateral cooperation between Greece and Ukraine does not have a visible field of application of defense technology products and certainly not the active battlefields, but they concern the transfer of know-how for unmanned aircraft in… maritime space, excluding any direct military use.