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Hellenic Air Force F-16 - Image from the net
NEWS 20.10.2017 : 22:30
ND demands details about F-16 upgrade deal with US
Opposition New Democracy’s shadow defense minister
Vassilis Kikilias said on Friday that although the upgrade of the Hellenic Air
Force fleet is indeed “imperative,” the parliamentary defense committee must
convene to examine the leftist-led government’s recent deal with Washington to
bring the country’s F-16 fighter jets up to standard.
The deal was announced during a joint press conference on
Tuesday at the White House by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and US President
Donald Trump, but no details were presented, while it was unclear what the
exact price tag would be.
Kikilias slammed the government for dealing with such a
serious issue in such a haphazard manner, adding that it was a cause for
concern. He said that lawmakers and the public must be informed of the details
– namely the deal’s cost and what it will entail.
Kikilias’s comments that the upgrade of the country’s
F-16s is nonetheless imperative were at odds with New Democracy MEP Giorgos
Kyrtsos, who submitted a question to the European Commission yesterday saying
that Brussels should intervene to scrap the agreement.
He took the Commission to task for remaining silent over
the deal at a time when Greece is struggling under a huge debt burden and
European institutions are demanding fiscal discipline. ND sources said the
party had distanced itself from Kyrtsos’s question, and that any comments
veering away from Kikilias’s statements yesterday were “personal views that do
not express those of the party.”
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Panos Kammenos claimed on
Friday that the US Congress may decide to upgrade part of Greece’s fleet of
F-16 fighter jets for free or a part of the agreed sum. Speaking on ANT1 TV,
the leader of the junior coalition partner, Independent Greeks, said that
Congress was to convene late yesterday (US time) and might approve the
upgrading of a number of the Greek jets as “assistance” to Greece.
He said the deal announced on Tuesday stipulated a cost
of no more than $1.1 billion and added that the $2.4 billion price tag referred
to by Trump concerned a possible upgrade of the entire F-16 fleet. “We do not
want all jets to be upgraded, but just some of them, unless the Congress
committee... decides that this translates into free assistance for Greece and
they want to upgrade all 123 jets,” added Kammenos.
Original post: ekathimerini.com
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