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Last week US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that President Biden was truly willing to support greater European military and defense capabilities, a key point in the joint statement with Macron aimed at smoothing over the AUKUS dispute. But Sullivan said it was crucial to deal in specifics. This statement, the AUKUS deal, and the recent defense agreement between France and Greece...

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Vassilis Nedos, Kathimerini’s diplomatic and defense editor, joins our podcast today to discuss his latest report that highlights Greece’s key foreign policy goals in the near future. We kick off by discussing Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias’ trip to Washington, DC, where he is expected to sign the updated Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement on Thursday and engage in the strategic dialogue...

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Is it time to check the power Turkey seeks to exert on the global stage? Expert Michael Rubin makes the case that it is in his latest piece for The National Interest - “The West Shouldn’t Deny the Big Picture on Turkey’s Erdogan”. Michael Rubin joins The Greek Current to discuss Turkish President Erdogan’s ambitions on the global stage and the methods he uses to achieve these goals, one of...

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Great power rivalry with China has become the central feature of American foreign policy, and is playing out across the globe, including in the Aegean and the Balkans. In his latest op-ed for Kathimeinri titled “Is America back?” Endy Zemenides argues that the US needs to step up its presence in the region in order to prove that “it is back”, especially as we look at the US-China rivalry. Endy...

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Reuters reported this week that Turkey made a request to the US to buy 40 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighter jets and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes, as Turkey looks to modernize its Air Force after it was kicked out of the F-35 program. The deal, which would be worth billions, would need the approval of both the US State Department as well as Congress, which can block...

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On Thursday Greece’s lawmakers ratified a historic defense deal with France that includes a mutual assistance clause in case of an armed attack against either, the first such deal between two NATO members. The agreement was announced in Paris last week by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and French President Emmanuel Macron, with Greece also announcing plans to buy three French frigates....

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On Wednesday EU leaders tried to reassure Western Balkan countries they could eventually join the EU if they met its standards, but the leaders failed to provide a credible signal that the bloc’s enlargement process will be relaunched in the near future. Instead, it looks like membership is slipping further into the future, to the frustration of candidate countries. The EU has spent many years...

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Last month the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers agreed to initiate the infringement process against Turkey in December unless it complies with a European Court of Human Rights ruling and releases political prisoner Osman Kavala. Kavala has been unjustly jailed for almost four years. The Council of Europe’s warning also urged Ankara to comply with another recent ECHR ruling to...

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In his latest piece for Foreign Policy Magazine titled “Erdogan Might Be Too Sick to Keep Leading Turkey”, expert Steven Cook looks at some rumors that are circulating about Turkish President Erdogan’s health, and breaks down how Turkish politics could be impacted in the near future should Erdogan not be in a position to run for re-election in the upcoming presidential elections in 2023. Steven...

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Petros Kasfikis, the Washington DC correspondent for the Athens News Agency and Greece’s Mega TV, joins The Greek current today with the latest analysis from the capital of the United States. We’ll look at the US reaction to to the defense agreement Greece and France signed on Tuesday, the ongoing negotiations for the Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement between Greece and the US and the latest...

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On Wednesday Turkish President Erdogan traveled to Sochi, Russia, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for nearly three hours. While there was no official readout from either side detailing what was discussed, reports indicate that a number of key issues were on the table, including tensions in Syria, energy, and weapons deals. The meeting came after Erdogan’s visit to New York...

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The US House of Representatives passed a bill on September 23 with an amendment - introduced by Representative Dina Titus - that requires the secretary of state to submit a report assessing whether Turkey’s Grey Wolves — a far-right militant group — meet the criteria to be designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. If the Senate also passes this legislation, then the US would join allies...

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Greece sealed an arms deal with France on Tuesday for the purchase of frigates worth about 3 billion euros. The agreement is part of a broader defense and security strategic partnership pact that includes a clause on mutual defense assistance and which French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described as “historic”. The two leaders announced the deal...

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On Sunday Germany held federal elections that saw the center-left Social Democrats win the largest share of the vote, narrowly beating outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right bloc in a closely fought race. Both of Germany’s traditional leading parties finished with well under 30% of the vote, while the Greens and the pro-business liberals, the Free Democratic Party, backed by young...

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After 16 years, Germany is saying farewell to Angela Merkel, its longtime Chancellor. As Germans head to the polls on Sunday, the rest of Europe will also be watching closely to see who emerges as the next leader of Germany. Throughout her tenure, Chancellor Merkel has steered Germany and the European Union through a number of crises, from the euro-debt crisis to the migration crisis - both of...

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Earlier this week His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros, joined by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, attended an event marking the opening of the Turkish House - or the Turkevi Center - in New York. Both leaders chose to attend the event, which was officiated by Turkish President Erdogan, despite having prior knowledge that Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar would participate at the event...

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Over the last decade we’ve seen the involvement of Turkey and the Gulf states grow significantly in the Horn of Africa, and the region became one more arena - like Libya and Tunisia - of competition between Turkey and Qatar on the one hand, and Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE on the other. While clashing interests and ideologies still shape dynamics in the Horn, President Biden’s election has...

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On Saturday Greece opened a new migrant camp on the eastern Aegean island of Samos. The facility is the first EU-designed, EU-funded migrant camp in the country, and is part of a broader European response to the tent cities that had emerged on Greece’s frontline islands since migrants and refugees began to arrive en-masse at the beginning of the migration crisis in 2015. The new facility, which...

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The Biden Administration announced on Monday that it will lift coronavirus travel restrictions for fully vaccinated travelers, reopening its borders for the first time in more than a year and bringing an end to the series of travel bans first imposed by President Donald Trump 18 months ago. This decision by the White House also answers a growing EU grievance — that EU countries had opened up to...

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Nine EU countries on the Mediterranean held a summit in Athens on Friday to discuss issues ranging from climate change to migration, security, and Afghanistan. The summit comes two days after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen - who was also in Athens on Friday - underlined the need for a common EU strategy in dealing with climate change, migration, and defense. Hours after the...

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