Athens, Greece – Greece is interested in jointly developing weapons with Israel, Greek officials have told Al Jazeera.
“We are excellent customers of Israeli systems,” Angelos Sirigos, chairman of the Greek parliament’s defense affairs committee, told Al Jazeera.
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Relations are strengthening as Israel The accused is standing For the genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
On 4 December, Greece’s Defense Affairs Committee approved the purchase of 36 PULS rocket artillery systems at a cost of $760m, the largest Greek Israeli arms acquisition to date.
The medium-range air defense system will form part of Greece’s Shield of Achilles, a 2.8-billion-euro ($3.3bn) layered air defense umbrella announced last year.
Sirigos said the rest of that budget could be dedicated to Israeli systems if co-production is on the table.
Greece is a nominal member of the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI), set up by Germany in 2022 to sell most German air defense systems such as the Iris-T and Skyranger. But Greece is not known to have negotiated to buy those systems.
In contrast, Greece’s Ministry of National Defense last month set up negotiating committees to buy three additional missile defense systems, Spyder, Barak and David Sling, manufactured by Israel-owned Rafale and Israel Aerospace Industries, at a potential cost of 3.1 billion euros ($3.5bn).
The three systems, which include short, medium and long-range air defense against air threats, including ballistic missiles, will complete the Achilles’ shield.
Greece and Israel are negotiating a government-to-government deal that bypasses a competitive bidding process.
“Otherwise, everyone will come and make an offer that Greece wants to avoid,” Vasilis Nedos, foreign and defense affairs reporter for the Kathimerini newspaper, told Al Jazeera.
He explained why Greece prefers to award contracts directly to Israel: “Israel has no problem giving you a qualitative edge. With other suppliers, you have to negotiate for that.”
Procurement advisory committees, made up of officers from all four branches of the armed forces, are discussing with their Israeli counterparts a “360 approach” that includes unmanned aerial, surface and underwater vehicles, Nedos said.
“We have also discussed ballistic missiles with other countries,” Sirigos said, without specifying which ones.
Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias confirmed on January 20 that Greece intends to move towards co-development.
“Israel, until a few decades ago, bought all the weapons it needed for its defense and today it is at the peak of defense technology,” Dendias said during a meeting with his Israeli counterpart. “Our goal is to transition Greece from being a consumer and purchaser of defense systems to a co-producer of low-cost, dual-use, innovative products.”
Dealing With Israel During Genocide ‘Problem’
But not everyone agrees that strengthening ties with Israel is in between Continued deadly attacks on Gaza It’s a good thing.
“Not dealing with international human rights issues because you’re putting your strategic relations first, that’s a problem,” said Lefteris Papagiannakis, head of the Greek Council for Refugees, a legal aid group for refugees, referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza.
“If you don’t want to call it genocide, then don’t, but as a humanitarian country, you have to do more than the minimum … as if Greece is copying Israel’s defense model and becoming the second-most armed state in the Eastern Mediterranean.”
But Greece would find itself in a difficult position if Israel and the United States “break down their relationship for whatever reason,” he added.
Last year, the left-wing opposition Syriza party suggested that Greece’s national team boycott a friendly basketball match with Israel.
“As famine kills thousands in Gaza, (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu is openly declaring that his goal is ethnic cleansing,” the party said in a statement, referring to Israel’s efforts to evict two million Palestinians from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt. “More and more countries are condemning these genocidal policies.”
Shared threat perception
Greece and Israel became closer after 2010, when Israeli-Turkish relations soured over Turkey’s aid to the Palestinians following clashes in the Gaza Strip between Palestinian armed groups and the Israeli army.
As Greece and Israel grew closer, they established trilateral relations with Cyprus, initially to discuss joint energy projects, but now expanding to security and defense.
All three countries share A similar threat perception from Turkey, and Ankara has referred to their relationship as an “anti-Turkish” alliance.
In April 2019, they discussed a radar system based in the three countries to cover the Eastern Mediterranean. In December 2025, they signed the Military Cooperation Action Plan.
“Those who dream of rolling back the region…will face a strong coalition of free, strong nations that can defend themselves,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a Jan. 20 visit to Athens in what was widely interpreted as a thinly veiled reference to Turkey.
Israeli-Turkish relations have worsened since December 2024 after Ankara-backed forces seized control of Syria.
Greece and Israel have since started joint military exercises.
Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Alexandra Papadopoulos revealed in a recent interview with the To Bima newspaper that Greece now sees its security as tied to Israel.
“Imagine how Greece would survive on the edge of Europe in a completely Muslim region if Israel ceased to exist,” she said.
Is cooperation possible?
On February 2, Hellenic Aerospace Industries announced that it had taken a step in this direction by combining its Centaur anti-drone electronic warfare system with Israel Aerospace Industries’ Barak anti-drone hard-kill rocket system, providing a soft-kill, hard-kill combined weapon.
“We are in talks with several companies, including Israeli companies, to jointly develop the system,” Hellenic Aerospace Industry CEO Alexandros Diakopoulos told Al Jazeera, adding that “the aim is joint development and co-production with knowledge transfer.”
Both HAI and IAI are state-owned, but Greece and Israel have very different corporate and government cultures.
“Israeli state companies are no different from private sector companies. But the Hellenic aerospace industry unfortunately has so many problems that (I doubt) its administration can go out and borrow $5m or hire people. The law doesn’t allow it to operate like a private company and hire people it wants to hire.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Al Jazeera, “Greece is a very friendly country to Israel and currently the cooperation between the two governments is very tight and close. And so, I think on that basis, many products produced by Israeli companies, security defense companies, will be allowed to be sold to Greece.”
But can political closeness make up for legal and administrative sclerosis in Greece?
“If Hellenic Aerospace and Hellenic Defense Systems were free to operate as Israeli state companies like IAI and Rafale, it would be very different,” Rozolis said.