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.

Greece has joined 16 other European nations in calling for a revision of EU laws to facilitate the return of irregular migrants.