The first six of 24 Rafale fighter aircraft acquired by the Hellenic Air Force from France arrived in Greece on Wednesday, landing at the Tanagra air base where the government organized a celebration attended by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. They took off from Istres in France and landed in Tanagra, where they joined the 332nd Squadron, after first flying over central Athens, escorted by two Mirage 2000-5 aircraft.
Greece will receive 24 Rafale jets in total, with an additional contract for another six fighter jets expected to be signed over the next few weeks. The contract for the first 18, six new and 12 used, was signed approximately a year ago. Their cost, including their armaments, will be 2.32 billion euros.
In a statement, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) points out:
The government celebrations about the Rafale jets delivery cannot hide that, in the tragic conditions of the pandemic and high prices, the people are called upon to shoulder —under the responsibility of the government and all the other parties that voted for them— the enormous cost of these warplanes, which mainly serve the country’s involvement in the aggressive plans of the Euro-Atlantic imperialist alliances of the ruling class.
And all this, at a time when the “foundations” of the “geostrategic enhancement” policy, which are supposed to be a shield for the country’s sovereign rights and defence, are collapsing one by one, as happened with the apparent abandonment of the East Med pipeline plan, dictated by the interests and the US–NATO–EU plans in the context of their intensified competition with Russia and China.
A real protection for the people’s interests and the sovereign rights of the country can exist only with the disentanglement from the aggressive plans of the US–NATO–EU, the final disengagement, the Greek people sovereign and in power, and the building of multilateral international relations on the basis of mutual benefit for the peoples.
ANA / inter.kke.gr
