Greece’s initiatives and proposals for the development of a European air defense “shield,” as well as for addressing threats not only on the EU’s eastern but also southern borders, are included in the roadmap for the Union’s Defense Readiness by 2030, presented on Thursday by the European Commission.

Greece is preparing to formally request the exclusion of its defense expenditures from future fiscal calculations under the European Union’s updated budgetary framework. The move, known as invoking the “escape clause,” was confirmed on Tuesday, April 29, by National Economy and Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis during an interview on state broadcaster ERTNews.

Greece is a strong member state of the European Union and of NATO, and it is a country that has strategic relations with the United States it wants to deepen, and a country that can now jointly formulate European policies, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said during his conversation with journalist and author Robert D. Kaplan at the Delphi Economic Forum X on Thursday.