Athens, Greece – Greece is interested in jointly developing weapons with Israel, Greek officials have told Al Jazeera.
“We’re an excellent customer of Israeli systems,” Angelos Syrigos, chairman of the Greek parliament’s Defence Affairs Committee, told Al Jazeera. “The leap in our defence relationship will happen when there’s co-production of defence systems and common planning.”
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The relationship is strengthening as Israel stands accused of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
On December 4, Greece’s Defence Affairs Committee approved the purchase of 36 PULS rocket artillery systems at a cost of $760m, the largest Greek acquisition of Israeli weapons to date.
The medium-range air defence system is to form part of Greece’s Shield of Achilles, a 2.8-billion-euro ($3.3bn) layered air defence umbrella announced last year.
Syrigos said that if co-production were on the table, the remainder of that budget could be devoted to Israeli systems.
Greece is nominally a member of the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) formed by Germany in 2022 as a vehicle to sell mostly German air defence systems such as Iris-T and Skyranger. But Greece is not known to have entered into talks to buy those systems.
In contrast, Greece’s Ministry of National Defence last month formed negotiating committees to buy three additional missile defence systems, Spyder, Barak and David’s Sling, produced by the Israel-owned Rafael and Israeli Aerospace Industries, worth a potential 3.1 billion euros ($3.5bn).
The three systems, comprising short, medium and long-range air defence against airborne threats including ballistic missiles, would complete the Shield of Achilles.
Greece and Israel are discussing a government-to-government deal that bypasses a competitive bid process.
“Otherwise, everyone would come in and tender an offer, which Greece wants to avoid,” Kathimerini newspaper’s foreign and defence affairs reporter Vassilis Nedos told Al Jazeera.
He explained why Greece prefers to award the contracts directly to Israel: “Israel has no problem giving you a qualitative edge. With other suppliers, you have to negotiate it.”
The procurement advisory committees, made up of officers from all four branches of the armed forces, are also discussing a “360 approach” involving unmanned aerial, surface and underwater vehicles with their Israeli counterparts, said Nedos.
“We’ve also discussed ballistic missiles with other countries,” Syrigos said, without specifying which ones.
Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias confirmed on January 20 that Greece wants to move towards co-development.
“Israel, until a few decades ago, bought all the weapons it needed for its defence, and today it is at the summit of defence technologies,” Dendias said during a visit from his Israeli counterpart. “Our goal is for Greece to transition from a customer and buyer of defence systems to a co-producer of low-cost, dual-use, innovative products.”
Dealing with Israel amid genocide ‘a problem’
But not everyone agrees that emboldening ties with Israel amid its ongoing deadly assaults on Gaza is a good thing.
“Not dealing with an international human rights issue because you’re putting your strategic relationship first, is a problem,” said Lefteris Papagiannakis, head of the Greek Council for Refugees, a legal aid group for refugees, referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza.
“If you don’t want to call it genocide, then don’t, but as a humanitarian country, you have to do more than the bare minimum … It’s as if Greece is copying Israel’s defence model, and becoming the second-most heavily armed state in the east Mediterranean.”
But if Israel and the United States ever have a “rupture in their relationship for whatever reason”, Greece will find itself in a difficult position, he added.
Last year, the left-wing opposition Syriza party suggested Greece’s national team boycott a friendly basketball match with Israel.
“While famine in Gaza is killing thousands of people, [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu is openly declaring that