Greece will take no instructions from other countries on how it strengthens its defenses, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Thursday, delivering a pointed message to Turkey as tensions between the two NATO allies rise again over longstanding disputes in the Aegean Sea.
Speaking alongside European Council President António Costa after talks in Athens, Mitsotakis said Greece posed no threat to its neighbors but would continue investing in its military capabilities.
“Greece is a peaceful country that poses no threat to anyone,” Mitsotakis said, adding that it “will not accept instructions from anyone” on how to reinforce its defenses.
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The remarks came amid a fresh diplomatic dispute. Greece’s embassy in Ankara lodged a formal protest with Turkey’s Foreign Ministry over recent Turkish statements concerning maritime spatial planning and presidential decisions issued Aug. 15 establishing two Turkish “national” marine parks.
Greek diplomatic officials said Turkey responded by reiterating claims that Athens considers unfounded. Greece “categorically rejects” the Turkish positions as arbitrary and without legal basis, the officials said, arguing that sovereignty in the Aegean has been clearly and definitively established by international treaties.
Athens also rejected Turkey’s designation of marine parks as invalid to the extent that they encompass areas Greece says fall outside Turkish jurisdiction and within the Greek continental shelf.
The latest exchange underscores the fragility of relations between Greece and Turkey, which have improved from periods of acute tension but remain burdened by disagreements over territorial waters, airspace, maritime boundaries and sovereignty in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.
Mitsotakis also linked Ankara’s ambitions for closer relations with the European Union to its conduct toward Greece.
“Respect for international law and good-neighborly relations is a prerequisite for the European course of every candidate country,” he said, arguing that threats of war and challenges to Greek sovereignty are incompatible with efforts to deepen ties with the EU.
Athens has long objected to a 1995 Turkish parliamentary declaration that an extension of Greek territorial waters in the Aegean to 12 nautical miles could constitute a *casus belli*, or cause for war. Mitsotakis said Greece supports closer Turkey-EU relations but that Ankara’s European trajectory must be accompanied by better relations with Athens.
The dispute comes as Europe seeks to strengthen its defense capabilities amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty. Mitsotakis called for an “impenetrable shield” against threats and greater common European financing for defense.
He described the EU’s SAFE defense-financing initiative as a positive step but said participation by countries outside the bloc must be carefully assessed and must not come at the expense of the security interests of EU member states.
Greek officials said Athens would continue raising with European and international partners any unilateral Turkish actions it considers violations of international law or challenges to Greek sovereignty and sovereign rights.
