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A stopover from Diksmuide to Piraeus far from being trivial. A permanent French presence announced

(B2) The Diksmuide is present off Greece these days for an exercise with the Hellenic and American armed forces, called "Alexander the Great 2020". But the interest of the presence of the French helicopter carrier was elsewhere, yesterday, with the stopover at the port of Piraeus

The Greek MinDéf Nikos Panagiotopoulos with French Ambassador P. Maisonnave at his side and the commander of Diksmuide CV Rossignol (credit: French Greece Embassy / Greek MOD)

In the bowels of the ship, the desire to unite 'our' forces

Many journalists (written press, television) were thus able to penetrate, Monday (January 27), into the bowels of the French BPC, as well as several personalities, starting with the Greek Minister of Defense Nikos Panagiotopoulos. " The presence of Diksmuide is solid proof of the desire to join forces He said.

Gradually bring Greece into the first circle of European defense

The French Ambassador to Greece, Patrick Maisonnave, was particularly eloquent. It's about " to gradually lead Greece towards the first circle of European defense ". As evidenced by the contacts between our ministries of defense », between the staffs, more frequent ».

Athens finds its way back to Europe

Greece, long absent from European defence, indeed seems to have found its way back to Europe. It is involved in several permanent structured cooperation projects (PESCO), candidate for the European Intervention Initiative (read: With eight working groups, the IEI's 'strategic planning club' takes shape), has decided to contribute to the French initiative in the Strait of Hormuz (EMASOH) (read: The EMASOH mission carried on the baptismal font by eight EU Member States. Start: mid-February) and accompanies the 'Charles' (read: A carrier battle group around the Charles-de-Gaulle deploys, with Europeans, episodic (v5)).

A permanent presence in the Eastern Mediterranean

The stopover from Diksmuide to Piraeus is part of " the French desire to be more present in this part of the world added the French ambassador. And to announce – which is particularly warm in the hearts of the Greeks, in the midst of a showdown with Turkey, in the eastern Mediterranean –: the permanent presence in the eastern Mediterranean of a French frigate. On the eve of the visit of the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to the Élysée, this announcement is anything but trivial. This aims to provide Greece with “ the forms of strategic reinsurance it needs », in the words of P. Maisonnave.

Supporting Greece so that it becomes better able to enforce its sovereignty

Greece is also renewing certain military equipment. Athens and Paris are thus still in talks for the delivery of two frigates “ the ultimate French frigates as P. Maisonnave says. A contract to upgrade the fleet of Mirage 2000 aircraft has been concluded. And another similar contract for the upgrade of Greek NH90 helicopters is going to be. It's about " to support Greece so that it becomes better able to enforce its sovereignty in this region of the world ».

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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