Turkey and Greece to join European missile shield

BERLIN — Turkey and Greece will join the European Sky Shield Initiative, bringing the total number of countries participating in the German-led initiative to 21.

The German, Greek and Turkish defense ministers announced the move on Feb. 15 at a Brussels summit of NATO defense ministers .

The European Sky Shield Initiative, ESSI, was launched in August 2022 by German chancellor Olaf Scholz. It seeks to streamline joint procurement of air defense capabilities across Europe and enhance the interoperability of systems.

The initiative is in response to a perceived European vulnerability against attacks of the kind Russia has launched on Ukrainian infrastructure.

German chancellor Scholz said in December 2022 that he hoped the plan would be fully developed within five years from that date. Half a year later, the German parliament authorized the nearly €4 billion ($4.3 billion) purchase of the Israeli Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile system.

This week’s Hellenic-Turkish letter of intent comes just days after former U.S. president and presumptive Republican nominee for the November general election, Donald Trump, criticized NATO partners for not meeting the alliance’s spending goals.

“This initiative helps translate allied commitments on defense spending into tangible capabilities available for our collective defense,” said NATO Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoană. “It demonstrates the clear commitment of European allies to fair burden sharing as well.”

The ESSI architecture is separate from NATO and also includes neutral Austria and Switzerland, who together joined in mid-2023 .

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler called the accession an “important step towards fulfilling NATO’s necessities,” adding that Turkey was “ready to contribute to this initiative with our wide range of national resources.”

Turkey, a NATO member, has previously purchased the Russian-made S-400 air-defense weapon, raising questions about interoperability with other members of the Sky Shield Initiative.

Turkey has the second-largest army in NATO after the United States. The country has a longstanding rivalry and unresolved disputes with fellow alliance member Greece, particularly over demarcation lines in the Aegean Sea.

Linus Höller is Defense News' Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.

柏林——土耳其和希腊将加入欧洲天空之盾倡议，使参与这项由德国主导的倡议的国家总数达到 21 个。

德国、希腊和土耳其国防部长于2月15日在布鲁塞尔举行的北约国防部长峰会上宣布了这一举措。

欧洲天空之盾计划（ESSI）由德国总理奥拉夫·朔尔茨于2022年8月启动。该计划旨在简化欧洲范围内防空能力的联合采购，并增强系统的互操作性。

该倡议是为了应对人们认为欧洲在抵御类似俄罗斯对乌克兰基础设施发动的那种攻击方面的脆弱性。

德国总理朔尔茨在2022年12月表示，他希望该计划能在五年内全面实施。半年后，德国议会批准了价值近40亿欧元（约合43亿美元）的以色列“箭-3”反弹道导弹系统采购计划。

就在几天前，美国前总统、共和党11月大选的推定候选人唐纳德·特朗普批评北约伙伴国未能达到联盟的支出目标。随后，希腊和土耳其签署了本周的意向书。

北约副秘书长米尔恰·杰瓦纳表示：“这项倡议有助于将盟国在国防开支方面的承诺转化为可用于我们集体防御的切实能力。它也表明了欧洲盟国对公平分担责任的明确承诺。”

ESSI 架构独立于北约，还包括中立的奥地利和瑞士，两国于 2023 年年中加入。

土耳其国防部长亚沙尔·居莱尔称此次加入是“朝着满足北约需求迈出的重要一步”，并补充说，土耳其“准备利用我们广泛的国家资源为这一倡议做出贡献”。

土耳其是北约成员国，此前曾购买过俄罗斯制造的S-400防空武器，这引发了人们对其与“天空之盾”倡议其他成员国的互操作性的质疑。

土耳其是北约成员国中规模第二大的军队，仅次于美国。该国与同为北约成员国的希腊之间存在长期的竞争关系和悬而未决的争端，尤其是在爱琴海的划界问题上。

林努斯·霍勒是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者和开源情报调查员。他报道影响欧洲乃至全球的军火交易、制裁和地缘政治。他拥有大规模杀伤性武器不扩散、恐怖主义研究和国际关系三个硕士学位，并精通英语、德语、俄语和西班牙语四种语言。