Greece to Honor Existing Defense Contracts with Russia - Minister

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said that Greece will purchase new Russian arms to replace the old one and procurement will be limited.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Greece will continue military-technical cooperation with Russia under existing arms supplies and maintenance contracts, Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos told Sputnik on Wednesday.

"What we will be doing right now and what we will be promoting is the maintenance of the weaponry systems which we have already bought, such as S-300, Tor-M1 and Kornet," Kammenos said on the sidelines of a conference on global security in Moscow.

"Our arms purchases will be limited to procurement of new ammunition to replace the old one," he added.

The minister also expressed hope that the EU sanctions regime against Russia would end soon, so that Athens and Moscow "could continue with other agreements."

Last year, the United States and the European Union imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow targeting several sectors of the Russian economy, including defense, banking and energy.

Greece is the only NATO member state that has the Russian-made S-300 long-range surface-to-air missiles systems in service. The Greek military successfully test-fired the air defense system for the first time in 2013 after buying two batteries in 1999.

The Greece Army also operates at least 25 Tor-M1 air defense systems, and has some 200 launchers and over 1,100 Kornet anti-tank guided missiles.