Greece’s 2026 defence cooperation with Israel

02 Oct 2026 Greece’s 2026 defence cooperation with Israel

Posted at 17:12h in CAHRA, Human rights, Weapons by Daniela Carosio

The growing military relationship between Greece, Israel and Cyprus is further complicating the mediterranean situation as well as it is creating a further obstacle to the EU in sanctioning Israel. Like other EU countries, such as Germany and Italy the ties of the their defence industries wirth Israel are postponing any EU decision on suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

The European Union’s foreign policy toward Israel is currently defined by internal division regarding the 2000 EU-Israel Association Agreement. As more and more countries pass sanctions on Israel independently, the call for a united EU approach grows. An important such attempt happened in September 2025, with the EU Commission proposing to suspend trade-related provisions and bilateral aid of this agreement. If this proposal would have passed, goods from Israel would have lost preferential access to EU markets, being charged the same taxes as any other third country imports. Suspending the 2000 trade agreement would have also meant cancelling EU Commission bilateral support to Israel, including financial allocations for 2025-27 of (on average) 6 million a year, and institutional cooperation costing roughly 14 million over the defined timespan^[1]. The EU Commission proposal reasoned the suspension of the trade agreement with a breach of its Article 2, which necessitates respect for human rights as foundational for the partnership. The proposal argued that Israel broke that clause, as visible in the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. The EU Commission’s own review[2] in 06/2025 confirmed that Israel very likely violated Article 2 of the agreement[3] ^[4]. A qualified majority was needed to pass the EU Commission proposal to stop the trade concessions and bilateral aid of the 2020 trade agreement, a hurdle the proposal failed to take^[5]. As per the qualified majority requirement to pass the proposal, at least one of the two ‘bigger countries’, Germany and Italy, had to agree, and both withheld their approval ^[6].

Italy’s perspective has changed since then, with increasing sharpness in language towards Israel and support for more recent EU proposals seeking to sanction Israeli political representative Ben Gvir. Germany remains stuck on blocking any proposals that require unanimity, and other countries have joined this block, some for similar reasons of defence cooperation; One such example is Greece.

In January, Greece and Israel signed a 2026 Defence Cooperation Programme covering dozens of joint actions, including 29 actions in Greece and 25 actions in Israel ^[7]. Regarding the programme, the Greek minister of national defence said, “Our goal is for Greece to transform from a country that is solely a customer and purchaser of defence systems into a country that co-produces and produces innovative, relatively low-cost, dual-use products“. For the same reason, the Hellenic Center for Defence Innovation has been active for three years, created based on studying the Israeli defence model in Greece. In April this year, Greece also signed a 750 million dollar contract with Israel to procure 36 PULS multiple rocket launcher systems from Elbit Systems. The contract, agreed in 2025, will run for 4 years with a following 10-years maintenance period ^[8], cementing the long-term defence partnership.

Greece, Israel and Cyprus also formalized a trilateral military cooperation plan at the same time of the bilateral defence cooperation (Greece/Israel, 01/2026), “to strengthen Stability, Security, and Prosperity throughout the Eastern Mediterranean” in the words of the Cypriot President ^[9]. It includes a joint action plan agreeing on joint exercises, intelligence sharing and operational coordination intensifying ^[10]. With cooperation expanding in water tech, cyber and agriculture, at meetings taking place between foreign deputy ministers ^[11], Israeli officials describe economic relations with Greece as being at “an all-time high,”- and indeed, bilateral trade increased by 41 percent between 2023 and 2024, rising from approximately $920 million to $1.3 billion^[12].

There is also an energy/connectivity angle in that Greece is positioning itself as an entry point for Middle East energy flows via the IMEC corridor and Piraeus port towards Europe. This is aligned with Israeli export interests, as It includes projects such as the EastMed pipeline, a once-flagship project with many delays which lost additional support when the US pulled out, and the great sea interconnector (GSI), an electricity cable linking Israel, the Greek Cypriot Administration (GCA) and Greece, which is also experiencing delays. The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) is more reliable as it functions through Greek ports such as Piraeus in Athens, allowing energy to enter the EU market^[13].

Only months later, Greece deepened this partnership considerably. At the end of August 2026, Athens signed the largest defence deal in its history with Israel: the “Achilles Shield”, an air defence network worth roughly €3 billion^[14]. The network is made up of three main systems. The first is David’s Sling, developed by the Israeli state-owned defence contractor Rafael and the American defence contractor Raytheon in a joint programme of the US and Israeli Missile Defense Agencies. The second is , designed to defend against short-range attacks and developed by Rafael in collaboration with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The third is the Barak MX system, produced by IAI, which is also an Israeli state-owned enterprise.

The deal soon raised questions of sovereignty. Israel’s missile defence chief stated that Greece would not receive the source code for the systems’ command-and-control software^[15] ^[16]. Israel’s defence ministry later promised a separate “Greek source code”^[17]. Israel reportedly plans to scale up exports of these systems, with the United Arab Emirates next in line^[18]. The question of who ultimately controls these systems will therefore probably not stay a Greek question for long.

Greece is not an isolated case. European defence spending is rising fast, and Israeli technology is increasingly built into it. Germany agreed in October 2025 to buy Israeli-designed anti-tank missiles from Rafael in a deal worth up to €2 billion, despite its partial arms embargo at the time^[19]. Italy remains entangled with Israeli defence interests through the partly state-owned Leonardo SPA^[20]. Despite European Union efforts to sanction Israel over human rights concerns, Greece has decided to prioritise its strategic alliance with Israel. This partnership is defined by significant long-term defence contracts, culminating in the roughly €3 billion Achilles Shield air defence deal, the largest in Greek history, a 41% increase in trade, and joint energy initiatives like the IMEC corridor that position Greece as a vital gateway for Israeli exports to European markets.

According to Aljazeera, “Turkiye has not yet reacted to the new defence deal. The growing military relationship between Greece, Israel and Cyprus – with which Turkiye also has territorial tensions – has previously drawn negative reactions from Ankara”.

At the same time, the dispute over the source code shows that the partnership also creates a lasting technological dependency on Israel. Currently, the advantages and stability of this partnership outweigh the momentum for unified European sanctions on Israel in Greece.

^[1] https://ec.europa.eu/Commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_2112

[2] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2025/772892/EPRS_ATA(2025)772892_EN.pdf

[3] https://www.euronews.com/2025/06/20/eu-review-indicates-israel-breached-human-rights-in-gaza

^[4] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2026/05/eu-israel-trade-agreement/

^[5] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/21/spain-slovenia-ireland-push-eu-to-debate-israel-pact-
suspension

^[6] https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/israel/2025/09/israel-250917-european-
Commission01.htm

^[7] https://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2026/01/20/greece-israel-defense-ministers-athens-joint
-statements/

^[8] https://breakingdefense.com/2026/04/greece-inks-750m-deal-with-israel-for-elbits-puls-rocket-
artillery-systems/

^[9] https://www.newsweek.com/israel-greece-and-cyprus-formalize-2026-military-cooperation-11277421

^[10] https://www.trtworld.com/article/0593061b0203

^[11] https://greekcitytimes.com/2026/05/15/israel-greece-economic-ties/

^[12] https://www.trtworld.com/article/0593061b0203