Greece has sought to bolster its Mediterranean presence in the past few weeks in response to heightened tension with Turkey, ramping up its maneuvers, but sparking accusations of adventurism at home.
Over the past month, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has revamped a defense agreement with the US and sent a warship to join a French naval battle group, and plans to deliver defensive missiles to Saudi Arabia.
The latest flurry has exposed the recently elected, US-educated prime minister to accusations of “adventurism” in a particularly volatile Middle East.
“You are embroiling the country in adventures that lie beyond its capacity and change decades-old foreign policy,” SYRIZA party leader Alexis Tsipras, a former Greek prime minister, told Mitsotakis last month.
Mitsotakis, who became prime minister in July, has shrugged off the criticism as short-sighted.
“We are strengthening the framework of our strategic alliances, not just with the US ... our military cooperation [with France] has never been better,” he told lawmakers last month as parliament prepared to approve the US defence deal.
A few days earlier, a Greek warship had joined the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, whose battle group is on a mission against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Diplomats say that France has encouraged Greece to be more “autonomous” and play a more active role in EU defense initiatives.
After a decade-long debt crisis that saw Greek arms spending drop by more than 70 percent, the Mitsotakis government wants to be heard, said Spyridon Litsas, professor of international relations at the University of Macedonia.
“Being idle during these days of high volatility is equally risky and has nothing substantially to offer to Greece’s attempt to achieve a return to international politics after the economic crisis of 2010,” he said.
Greek relations with Turkey — never particularly warm — have taken a turn for the worse in the past few months under the added burden of migration and an energy exploration scramble in the eastern Mediterranean.
Right now, “France is the ideal Greek ally,” said Panagiotis Tsakonas, a professor of international law at Athens University.
“The two countries share views on the situation in the eastern Mediterranean,” he said, citing involvement of French firms in energy exploration off Cyprus, historically Greece’s chief ally.
Turkey has pushed ahead with drilling activity in Cyprus’ designated exclusive economic zone despite EU threats of sanctions.
Greece last month signed an agreement with Cyprus and Israel on EastMed, a huge pipeline project to ship gas to Europe.
The rivalry has extended to Libya. Turkey in November last year signed a maritime and military cooperation memorandum with the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), carving out energy spheres of influence in the Mediterranean at the expense of Greece.
Athens retaliated by expelling the GNA ambassador and seeking to build ties with Libyan National Army Commander Khalifa Haftar, who controls three-quarters of Libyan territory.
Constantinos Filis, executive director of the Athens-based Institute of International Relations, said that Athens “must demonstrate its presence and secure backing in the face of Turkish claims in the region”.
However, he is less sanguine about Greece’s Tuesday announcement that it would send a batch of US-made Patriot defensive missiles to Saudi Arabia to guard energy facilities.
“This could risk involving [Greece] in a confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Iran,” Filis said.
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