Greece opposes UK sale of Meteor missiles to Türkiye

Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias expressed his opposition to the possible sale of Meteor surface-to-air missiles to Türkiye during a meeting with UK Defence Secretary John Healey in London on Tuesday.

According to Kathimerini, Dendias’ visit was also aimed at strengthening defence cooperation with the UK, which Athens sees as having an important role in European defence planning following Donald Trump’s recent election victory.

In January, Kathimerini newspaper reported that Türkiye had requested the purchase of a significant number of Meteor missiles. The missiles are produced by the European missile consortium MBDA, a joint venture between French Airbus, British BAE Systems and Italian Leonardo.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis discussed the issue with French President Emmanuel Macron in early February.

According to reports, Ankara may be interested in reverse-engineering the Meteor missile technology to advance its own air-to-air missile development.

According to Kathimerini, Türkiye’s defence industry is developing the “Gokhan” missile, which has similar characteristics to the Meteor, and is currently in the testing phase. The Turkish Air Force is planning to equip its indigenously upgraded F-16s with the Gokhan missile, sources said.

Dendias emphasised that the purpose of the visit was to get a clear picture of how the UK government perceives the new situation and the geopolitical challenges it poses “in the wider region, from Ukraine to the Eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea, Gaza, Syria and the Sahel.”