UK, Greece Sign Defence Partnership

Amidst the war-spread tension globally, Greece’s National Defence Minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos has signed the Joint Vision Statement (JVS) with UK Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, according to media reports on Tuesday.

Nikos was on his UK visit, which included a Guard of Honour in London and a tour of HMS Diamond, a Royal Navy destroyer at His Majesty’s Naval Base Portsmouth.

The signed JVS highlights the two countries' shared determination to work together to enhance resilience against all future security threats and challenges in the Euro-Atlantic area.

It also adds to develop the UK-Greek relationship, an annual ‘Roadmap’ outlining the defence cooperation priorities to be agreed upon each year.

Commenting on the statement, Defence Secretary Wallace said, I am glad to welcome Nikos, the defence minister of our long-standing NATO ally and defence partner country, Greece.

He added the new joint defence and security agreement is likely to promote greater UK-Greece collaboration and defence cooperation, outlining the direction to tackle shared security threats and challenges in the Euro-Atlantic.

According to reports along with the JVC, the countries will look forward to exploiting new collaboration opportunities, which include the effectiveness and interoperability of armed forces. And improved capacity to NATO helping to develop readiness among forces such as the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps.

Besides this the two nations will work together to enhance innovative solutions for future equipment needs, increasing military interoperability, and reducing acquisition and support costs.