Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis raised the country’s problems with Turkey and specifically the casus belli at the NATO Summit in Ankara on Wednesday morning.
“An alliance must be based on fundamental principles of good neighborly relations,” Mitsotakis told journalists as he arrived at the Presidential Palace.
He stressed that Greece continued to face what it regards as an open threat of war from Turkey, and said the security concerns of all NATO member states should be taken into account within what is fundamentally a defensive alliance.
Mitsotakis said he believed all outstanding issues could be resolved through good neighborly relations and cooperation.
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According to state broadcaster ERT, it is the second time within the last six months that PM Mitsotakis refers to the casus belli, a resolution passed at the Turkish Parliament in 1995 and has not been revoked in 2026.
The casus belli resolution declared that any extension of Greek territorial waters (the “αιγιαλίτιδα ζώνη”) from 6 to 12 nautical miles in the Aegean Sea would be treated as casus belli, as an act or cause of war.
The Greek PM reiterated his support for greater European strategic autonomy, stressing that it should complement rather than compete with NATO by strengthening the alliance’s European pillar.
He said decisions taken at last year’s NATO summit in The Hague had set important defense spending benchmarks and added that Greece had already reached defense expenditure equivalent to 3.5% of gross domestic product and was implementing a 25-billion-euro programme to modernize its armed forces.
He said Greece had consistently met its commitments to NATO, including during years of severe fiscal austerity, despite facing significant geopolitical challenges in its region.
Speaking before the start of NATO’s 36th summit, Mitsotakis said U.S. President Donald Trump had, since his first term, pressed European allies to assume a greater share of defense spending.
Mitsotakis also expressed hope that the ceasefire between the United States and Iran would hold, saying diplomacy should be given time to resolve the crisis.
PS Now Greeks hope the PM told about the casus belli issue also his NATO counterparts and not only the journalists…
