A report on the military news site defencenet claims that the Greek Foreign Minister assured his Russian counterpart that the government will observe all the agreements that were made by the former government under Costas Karamanlis, referring of course to the massive defense and energy deals that were made while the latter was in power between 2004-2009.
Lavrov's response was immediate: "We have kept our word, we welcome the government's decision to reactivate the agreements. We will prepare new agreements." At the same time, Lavrov said that Russia would examine a request for economic aid by Greece, if such a request was made.
Speaking at a joint news conference later on, Lavrov said Russia appreciated the "constructive" position of Greece in ties between Moscow and the European Union, which has imposed several waves of sanctions on Russia over Ukraine. The Russian FM said that the two ministers agreed that there could only be a political situation to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has killed more than 5,000 people.
On his part, Kotzias said he hoped there would be a "significant" agreement at talks in the Belarussian capital Minsk later on Wednesday and mentioned the issue of ethnic Greeks living in eastern Ukraine.
The minister said over 100,000 ethnic Greeks live in eastern Ukraine and he will make it a priority to give them assistance. "We have a special problem with Ukraine. As you know, in Mariupol and other parts of eastern Ukraine there are about 100,000 people of Greek origin and we are trying to do everything possible to help them," Kotzias said.
It should be reiterated that former premier Costas Karamanlis had signed intergovernmental agreements with Russia for the purchase of TDMA BMP-3 which will dramatically upgrade the capabilities of Greece's armed forces they protect personnel with immeasurable firepower.
Speaking about fire-power, Greek philosopher and historian Ilias Iliopoulos told RIA Novosti that Russian arms are more reliable and effective during crises since they cannot be switched off by manufacturers of weapons systems produced in the US and sold overseas. In the article he notes that Greece will only benefit from shunning US weapons in favor of more reliable Russian arms to allow the country to meet its national security needs.
"What should I think when buying US weapons if they can be switched off during crisis? This is a waste of money," Iliopoulos said.Although Greece's new government is mainly focused on finding a way to help the country’s ailing economy to recover, Yannis Mandalidis, editor-in-chief of the Lambrakis Press Group, told Sputnik Turkey that Athens is promoting greater cooperation with Russia.
"Think about Saddam Hussein, who bought French weapons, including air defense systems and radars. At the critical moment all that electronics was switched off remotely via a satellite," Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the Russian National Defense magazine, told Sputnik Turkey.
"Just like French weapons, US arms … can be remotely shut down. This is reality," he emphasized.
"Greece’s new government, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense, will seek closer ties with Russia. Hence, military cooperation with Moscow will come to the fore in the future," he said.(Editor's Note: Although HellasFrappe has rallied hard for Karamanlis, and everyone who regularly reads HellasFrappe knows that the editor of the blog is a HUGE fan of this former prime minister, we are somehow not convinced by SYRIZA's sudden love story with Russia. We cannot get the picture of Alexis Tsipras and some of George Papandreou's buddies at the Soros-backed Brookings Institute out of our minds. Certainly we applaud this development, if true, but we are not about to count our chickens before they hatch and recommend that our readers soak up all the information with a grain of salt as well. Why? Our instinct tells us that it is just a show... or dust in the eyes of all of those who are against Russia, meaning the US and the EU, so that Greece can have better ammo at the ongoing negotiations in Brussels. Besides, we believe that diplomacy that secures energy and defence deals is not really publicized on news sites and the social networks... We could be wrong, things are very hazy at the moment, but we will wait and see what happens. Stay tuned Frappers.)
"Greece will have an edge over its adversaries since they will not be familiar with Russian weapons," Mandalidis added.
Referenes:
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150211/1018111141.html
http://www.defencenet.gr/defence/item/%CE%BD%CE%B
http://www.defencenet.gr/defence/item/%CE%AD%CE