Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has ruled out war with Türkiye, while insisting that Athens will keep expanding its armed forces and negotiate with Ankara only from strength. “In no circumstances do we foresee war,” Mitsotakis said, adding that Greece “must continue strengthening” its deterrent capability. He said Greece “can and wants to resolve” its one substantive dispute with Ankara: maritime-zone delimitation. The remarks came ahead of the July 7–8 NATO summit in Ankara.
Mitsotakis also said Greece will not “ask anyone’s permission” to build its military — an answer to Turkish pressure, not a retreat from it.
The military build-out is real. The Hellenic Navy received its first Belharra-class frigate, HS Kimon, from Naval Group on December 18, 2025, with more ships due through the program. Athens also signed a $3.76 billion deal in July 2024 for 20 F-35A fighter jets, with deliveries expected to begin in 2028 and run through 2033. Greece is not trying to match Türkiye system for system; it is raising the cost of any challenge to Greek positions in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.
Greece and Türkiye, both NATO members, remain divided over maritime boundaries, airspace, Cyprus, drilling rights and sovereignty claims. Reuters reported after the February 2026 Ankara talks that both sides wanted to keep dialogue open, but the core disputes remain. Athens confines negotiation to maritime-zone delimitation alone — a position Mitsotakis repeated in June.
The Ankara summit puts Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the center of alliance diplomacy while one of NATO’s oldest internal disputes remains unresolved. The immediate war risk is low. The rivalry is not.
