Thursday, 24 December 2020 15:30
According to information published by the Daily Sabah website on December 22, 2020, Turkey will produce Ada-class corvettes for Ukraine. The Ada-class is a ship developed for the MILGEM project, a Turkish program to develop corvettes and frigates that can be deployed in a range of missions, including reconnaissance, surveillance, early warning, anti-submarine warfare, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air warfare, and amphibious operations.
Turkish Navy TCG Kınalıada (F-514) Ada-Class corvette (Picture source Twitter account Cavit Ege Tulça)
A statement was released on Internet announcing the signature of a memorandum between Turkey s Defense Industries Presidency (SSB) and Ukraine for the production of Ada-Class corvettes for the Ukrainian Navy.
January 2: East Med pipeline deal signed
Greece, Cyprus and Israel signed an agreement to build the Eastern Mediterranean Pipeline that will carry natural gas 1,900km from the Eastern Mediterranean basin to the European market. The pipeline is estimated to cost 7bn euros ($8.53bn) and carry an initial 10 billion cubic metres annually, expandable to 16 billion cubic metres annually. It is a major irritant to Turkey, which sees it as an attempt to exclude it from the region’s energy bonanza.
January 30: Turkish ship enters contested waters
The Turkish seismic survey ship Oruc Reis entered Greece’s Exclusive Economic Zone southeast of Karpathos for about 24 hours, testing Greek reflexes. It was monitored by the Greek frigate Nikiforos Fokas.
Athens, Greece – France is completing the sale of 18 Rafale jets to Greece ahead of January, when French defence minister Florence Parly is to visit Athens to sign it.
The sale will make Greece the first European client for the advanced plane, in a deal valued at 2.5bn euros ($3bn).
It is Greece’s first significant defence equipment purchase since 2005, when it bought more than 300 Leopard tanks from Germany, and its first investment in a new combat aircraft since buying French Mirage 2000s in 1989.
Greece’s overall defence spending halved from 7.88bn euros in 2009 to 3.75bn euros in 2018, as an eight-year recession led to budget cuts. Greece is sharply increasing its defence spending by 43 percent this year, to 5.5bn euros ($6.7bn).
After US sanctions on Turkey, what happens next?
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Turkey has a number of options but a lot will depend on how the Turkey-Biden relationship kicks off.
The Trump administration has officially imposed the long-anticipated sanctions on Turkey over the purchase of Russian S-400s. It was interesting that the announcement of the sanctions, which were expected to be made last week, coincided with the same day that Joe Biden was formally elected by the Electoral College.
By the time the US Department of State released the press statement about the embargo on Monday, everyone in Washington DC had already started talking about the articles of the sanctions against Turkey.
Greece welcomes US sanctions on Turkey
Russia s S-400 missile defence system in Ankara, Turkey on 12 July 2019 [Turkey’s National Defense Ministry/Anadolu Agency] December 16, 2020 at 2:57 pm
Greece s Foreign Ministry yesterday welcomed the US decision to impose sanctions on Turkey for the latter s acquisition of Russian S-400 air defence systems. Greece, a NATO member state, is pleased with the announcement by the US Treasury Department of sanctions against the Turkish Defense Industries, its head and other leaders in accordance with Section 231 of the Countering America s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), the ministry said in a statement.
The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently said that Turkey was an insecure ally , accusing Ankara of threatening NATO s common security.