:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/XMQSN6V4I5ADFAU7RLCJKQWS24.jpg "Greece / Turkey.- Greece expresses its concern about the sale of “attack submarines” to Turkey by Germany")
The Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has expressed his concern on Friday about the sale of “Attack Submarines” Type 214 by the German Government in the framework of the disputes between Ankara and Athens.In the framework of a conference on the situation in Europe, Mitsotakis has highlighted examples such as the sanctions imposed by the United States on the Turkish defense industry, including the suspension of the program for the construction of F-35 fighters after the decision of Turkey to buy S-400 air defense systems from Russia.
“Germany now plans to export attack submarines to Turkey and this is an issue that worries us,” he lamented, according to information from the daily ‘Kathimerini’.
On January 25, the parties resumed talks on the exploration of hydrocarbons in the Mediterranean, the main point of the disputes between the two countries, four years after the dialogue was suspended due to an increase in tension in the region.
With a conversation lasting more than three hours, the dialogue began in the Turkish city of Istanbul. Already in mid-January, the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, had invited Athens to resume military talks with the mediation of NATO in a renewed attempt, in addition, to promote an improvement in relations with the European Union.
The mechanism to reduce tension was launched by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the autumn of 2020 to avoid a possible armed conflict between two allies, which have for their part started what is now the 61st round of talks about.
Greece has accused Turkey of carrying out prospecting and exploration activities for hydrocarbons “illegally” off several of its islands. However, the Turkish government rejects the accusations and assures that the waters in which gas is being drilled on an experimental basis belong to the Turkish continental shelf.
The dispute over Turkish natural gas exploration off the Greek islands of Rhodes and Castelórizo in the eastern Mediterranean has steadily escalated in recent months.