Greece says it will not send troops to post-war Ukraine
'No, there is no such plan, nor is one being considered,' Greek government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said in an interview with the TV channel Skai.
Marinakis added that it is for individual member states to make such decisions and explained that, depending on how developments unfold, Athens will offer support – but not at a military level.
Greece has supported Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's war and has provided Kyiv with, among other things, Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition, and BMP-1 armoured vehicles.
However, late last year, it refused to dispatch Patriot and S-300 missile systems, which were requested by Ukraine.
That said Athens is aligned with the EU position that borders cannot be changed by force, having always considering the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus since 1974 to be another example of this.
'Greece respects international law and, under no circumstances, will it water down its position on border violations,' Marinakis said. (cp)
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Their defence ministers are tasked with a plan to reconcile differences and move the €100 billion project forward by the end of August. France has a history of difficulty with joint European military aircraft projects. The country previously pulled out of the consortiums that developed the Tornado and Eurofighter jets. But the difficult state of French finances and major budget constraints are now limiting the options for Paris. France "does not have much room to make threats about going it alone", De Cordoue said. Stuart Dee, a defence economist at RAND Europe, told Euractiv that the cost to restart and develop a sixth-generation fighter from scratch would severely strain the finances of almost any single country. 'Only a very small number of nations globally can fund a programme of this scale independently, hence the original rationale of co-development between partners,' Dee said. 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