Greece has “urged all [its] allies to increase” defense spending, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said in an interview in Fox News, adding that Greece has increased its defense spending to 3% of GDP, exceeding NATO’s 2% target.
“We have to enter into a collective defense of Europe,” he said and added that any “additional defense expenses should just escape from any spending ceiling, in order to motivate the state to spend on defense.”
Gerapetritis was in Washington and met with his US counterpart, Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday, just hours after the fiery exchange between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Greek Foreign Minister said that “when it comes to Ukraine, Europe should have a predominant role,” but added that the US should stay together.
He noted that the most important task is to “stop the hostilities,” adding that the war has been going on for three years.
“We, as Europe, can give Ukraine a lot of multi-layered guarantees,” he said during the interview. “We are the neighbors and we have to take responsibility for this. We need the support of the US. It’s important that the U.S. stays involved, but of course Europe should be the main stakeholder.”
Gerapetritis said that there should be an end to this war through international law, because the emphasis should be on maintaining the international security architecture.
“The day after will be an opportunity to think about reconstruction and security guarantees,” he added. “There must be a fair burden-sharing when it comes to security guarantees. Europe should play a prominent role in this, and Greece has strongly supported the upgrading of security mechanisms within the EU.”