ATHENS

Strengthening Greece’s military capabilities is among the government’s priorities, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Sunday.

“I never had any illusions and was always realistic on the rapprochement with Türkiye,” Mitsotakis said during a news conference in the northern port city of Thessaloniki.

Stressing that focusing on the positive side of the thaw with the neighboring country is important, he pointed to the increased number of Turkish tourists visiting Greek islands in the eastern Aegean through a visa facilitation scheme and the successful cooperation between Greece and Türkiye in managing irregular migration among the tangible fruits of improved bilateral relations.

On the other hand, he said, problems with Türkiye remain.

“The core of Turkish revisionism has not changed. The Blue Homeland doctrine (of Türkiye) constitutes a direct challenge to our sovereignty,” he said.

Mitsotakis said the doctrine is also an obstacle for the countries to be able to start negotiating the delimitation of the maritime borders, the essential problem between Türkiye and Greece.

“If we believed that we would resolve our issues with Türkiye in the coming decades, we would not need to invest so heavily in strengthening the deterrent power of our armed forces," he added.

Also emphasizing that Greece has examined and learned lessons from Russia’s war in Ukraine, Mitsotakis drew attention to the role that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have played in the war.

“As such, we attach much importance to supporting research and development endeavors which would lead to Greece producing such systems domestically,” he added.