A contract worth up to 2.4 billion USD, for the upgrading of Greece’s fleet of US-made F-16s will come under the scrutiny of the country’s institutional creditors, a European official told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday.
The agreement was revealed during a state visit by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Washington this week, with his host at the White House, US President Donald Trump, referring to the deal four times.
The European official said no details over the agreement were available, while the Greek side will queried over the issue, probably during negotiations to conclude the third review of the ongoing bailout.
Finally, the official added that the crucial details are the timetable for the 2.4-billion-dollar deal, how the defense outlay will be allocated and over how many years.
Greece’s defence budget for 2016 was $ 4.6 billion or 2.38 % of its GDP.
The Greek defence minister responded to the announcement of the F16 upgrade deal saying that only 1.1billion will be paid out of the Greek budget – the rest will be made up from military aid and offset reductions.
