ALBAWABA - Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis said in an interview with Skai TV on Saturday that it was only a matter of time before Greece joined the F-35 program, saying that Greek-US relations "have reached their peak" Jordan Times reported.
Prior to the U.S. Secretary of State's visit to Athens, Gerapetritis said: "We don't do transactional politics, we do an international policy of principles, and everybody respects that, and the big players, the United States, which is obviously a superpower, realizes who the credible regional player is".
"The fighter jets would significantly upgrade the country's defense. We will discuss this issue (during Blinken’s visit). I believe there will be positive developments," he said.
When asked about the diplomatic relations with Turkey, Gerapetritis spoke highly in an interview with broadcaster SKAI but insisted on upgrading the country's military by purchasing F-35 fighter jets from the US.
"I want to emphasize that it is very important that we have now reached a level of discussion and understanding so that we can manage tensions without causing crises," he said.
More specifically, Gerapetritis argued that the thawing of bilateral relations is already yielding positive results from the Greek side, as these are no longer limited to dealing with irregular migration and human trafficking issues.
The minister also stated that Athens intends to take the issue of maritime border delimitation with Turkey to an international court, such as The Hague's International Court of Justice or Hamburg's Special Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
"At this stage, we have not discussed this issue," the top diplomat said. It is a problem that will arise in the future. We have stated that we are taking things one step at a time. We're not going to take any risks".
