Athens is quietly welcoming moves by India to field an aeronautical presence in the eastern Mediterranean by, among others, using the Souda Bay airbase and anchorage in western Crete for warplane layovers and docking for its transiting warships.
Indian military sources that spoke with the Athens daily “Ta Nea”, in fact, pointed to the recent arrival of the Indian Navy (INS) frigate “Tamal” in Greek waters for joint training with the Hellenic Navy fast attack missile boat “Ritsos” before the former docked at Souda Bay.
On the Greek side, the chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff (HNDGS), Gen. Dimitrios Choupis, officially visited New Delhi last year, with bilateral defense cooperation emerging on several levels afterwards.
Indian units, for instance, subsequently participated in inter-branch exercises, Indian firms participated in the DEFEA defense exhibition in Athen and intelligence-sharing commenced, while New Delhi has also promised to station a military liaison officer at its embassy in Athens as soon as this year.
Additionally, a senior military source told “Ta Nea” that New Delhi is now “eyeing” the Greece’s defense industry, while also pointing out that Greek vessels, fighter jets, special forces units as well as staff officers participated in recent military exercises in India.
On the wider geopolitical front, India has not hidden its anger over Turkish involvement in the most recent Indo-Pakistan conflict, as Ankara’s supported the Pakistanis with hundreds of Bayraktar UAVs. According to Indian military sources, around 300 to 400 Turkish drones, including Bayraktar, Byker YIHA IIIs and microdrones, were shot down by Indian air defenses. Amid this backdrop, New Delhi is apparently determined to side with Athens against Ankara’s revisionist policies, which it now openly considers a rival.
It’s also noteworthy that during the latest Greek-Turkish crisis in February and March 2020, Pakistan deployed a P-3 Orion maritime surveillance turboprop in Turkey to patrol the Aegean. According to Athens, that plane violated Greek airspace near and around the Kastellorizo isle chain several times over successive days, forcing Greece to lodge a demarche with Islamabad.
Additionally, Pakistani warships sailing in the Mediterranean now frequently conduct exercises with Turkish naval vessels.
Source: Tovima.com
