“Kyriakos Mitsotakis‘ message to the UN was clear: as long as Turkey keeps the casus belli in force, it cannot join the SAFE mechanism and claim European funds for defense,” said among others, Secretary of International Relations and EU of the New Democracy, Mr. Tasos Hadjivassiliou, in his intervention on OPEN on Monday afternoon.

He said that at the same time, Greece “has already secured participation in the F-35 program and it is estimated that before the end of the decade, the first deliveries will be made,” while he also stressed the importance of the Prime Minister‘s meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch and the head of Lockheed Martin.

Commenting on the cancellation of the Mitsotakis-Erdogan meeting, Hatzivassiliou said: “If we assume that Turkey cancelled it because it was annoyed, the reasons are obvious. It is annoyed because the government is proceeding with Chevron south of Crete, because Greek positions are recognized and the illegal memorandum is once again being rammed through.”

Referring to the Trump-Erdogan meeting, he spoke of “good personal chemistry” between the two leaders, but stressed that “Turkey’s road to the F-35 remains long and difficult.” As he explained, “it is unlikely for now that Ankara will rejoin the program, as Trump will not give anything without quid pro quo.” Among these, Washington is asking Ankara to “improve relations with Israel, energy decoupling from Russia, and resolving the S-400 issue.” All of these, he noted, “cannot be done in a short period of time and without cost.”

The MP recalled that “Turkey has given more than 100 billion euros to Russia since the beginning of the war in Ukraine to buy energy resources,” while its dependencies on Russian gas and oil make it impossible to change suppliers immediately and without cost. At the same time, he pointed to the congressional roadblock: “There is already a letter from 20 members of Congress to President Trump, including Republicans, asking for no change in the policy of US sanctions against Turkey. So things are not that simple.”