On Monday Greek and Israeli officials met in Tel Aviv to sign the largest bilateral defense contract between the two countries, a deal worth just over €3 billion that will see the implementation of the Achilles Shield, Greece’s first multi-domain defence dome set to cover all of Greece’s territory.
It’s important to note that this agreement also signals Greece’s intent to bolster its own defense industry, a key priority for Athens, with at least 19 Greek companies already involved in the deal and accounting for more than €750 million of the program.
Aside from deepening ties on the defense front, this deal builds on a number of key diplomatic initiatives over the past decade that have brought the two countries closer together, and is seen as part of a wider arc of cooperation that ties into initiatives like the 3+1 with Cyprus and the US and IMEC.
As the Achilles Shield takes shape, Turkey is ratcheting up tensions in the region, locking horns with Israel over Syria. This Israel-Turkey rivalry is escalating amid profound changes that seem to signal the unraveling of the old US led order in the Middle East, and amid growing concerns in Athens that Ankara could be taking Greek-Turkish ties into a new period of heightened tensions.
Developments on the geopolitical side are heating up just as Greece is beginning to take stock of another summer holiday season that could break new records. While many will focus on these record breaking numbers, Kathimerini took a different approach recently, choosing to look back at the early days of tourism in Greece and the decades-long debates that have followed about the value of tourism for the country.
John Psaropoulos, Sinan Ciddi, Steven Cook, Alexia Kalaitzi, and Erini Karamouzi join me this week as we explore these issues.
A little more info on our guests:
John Psaropoulos is an independent journalist, Al Jazeera's correspondent in southeast Europe, and publisher of Hellenica on Substack.
Sinan Ciddi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and director of its Turkey program.
Steven Cook is the Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Alexia Kalaitzi is an award-winning journalist and features reporter for Kathimerini.
Dr. Eirini Karamouzi is a professor of contemporary European history at The American College of Greece and an associate professor of contemporary history at the University of Sheffield in the UK.
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