Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias was in Cyprus on Monday to discuss ways to collaborate on the EU’s €150 billion defence-loans programme SAFE (Security Action for Europe).
The programme, agreed by EU ministers in May 2025, uses joint EU borrowing to offer low-interest, long-maturity loans so countries can buy or co-produce military ware, including air/missile defence, artillery, drones, logistics, and more.
The goal is to boost Europe’s defence capacity, with a focus on closing critical capability gaps, and reducing reliance on external suppliers.
Having signed up to SAFE’s favourable defence loans, Cyprus has been earmarked a potential disbursement of €1.181 billion to modernise its military and support a domestic defence-innovation ecosystem. Greece has been tentatively allocated €788 million from the facility.
Areas of collaboration
According to information obtained by Politis to the point, the three issues that the two countries are looking to collaborate on are:
· a joint anti-drone system;
· Greece’s home-grown Centaur anti-drone system, designed to protect naval vessels and critical infrastructure from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); and,
· the assembly of military transport buses.
On the first, Greece has already advanced significantly on development of an anti-drone system, while Cyprus will present its own system soon. Regarding Centaur, is designed for real-time search, detection, tracking, and neutralisation of drones through jamming or other methods.
According to Reuters, the anti-drone system had its first test run last year with a European Union patrol in the Red Sea where it detected and brought down two aerial drones launched by Yemen’s Houthis. Centaur can detect drones from 150km and fire from 25km. Greece plans to install it throughout its naval fleet.
"It's the only battle-proven anti-drone system (made) in Europe," Kyriakos Enotiadis, electronics director at state-run Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI), which produces the anti-drone system, told the international news agency.
‘Golden opportunity’
Speaking after a meeting with Dendias, President Nikos Christodoulides said Cyprus’ upcoming EU Presidency, starting at the turn of the year, was a “golden opportunity” to strengthen the Greek and Cypriot defence industries and to showcase their capabilities.
“We must see how we can push forward defence and security issues for Cyprus and Greece even further. These are extremely important sectors, taking into account the Turkish occupation and provocations, but also the fact that we are geographically located in an area of particular geostrategic importance,” said Christodoulides.
On his part, Dendias said that he and his Cypriot counterpart, Vassilis Palmas, had the opportunity to discuss the further deepening of defence cooperation between the two countries, particularly in matters related to the defence industry and ecosystem of Greece and Cyprus. He described the Cypriot EU Presidency as “a tremendous opportunity” for further cooperation.
Speaking after their meeting at the Defence Ministry in Nicosia, Palmas said: “We consider it self-evident, of course, within the framework of SAFE, that the two Ministries should have synergies and cooperation, so that we can further upgrade our defence capability and our defensive shield for the protection of our sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Turkey in SAFE
Asked about the prospect of Turkey joining the SAFE programme, the Greek minister said: “Vassilis and I are perhaps among the few people in Europe who have actually sat down and read the SAFE Regulation. An extremely complex Regulation, written in the peculiar language of Brussels’ bureaucracy, precisely so that everyone can understand whatever they think it means and express whatever they deem appropriate.”
However, within this context, he said, there are principled values that must be clear. “There is a clear commitment by the European Commission on how contracts between the EU and third countries will be submitted for discussion,” said Dendias.
He noted that the European Commission itself has committed to putting such proposals to a vote by unanimity.
“This is self-evident, because if someone threatens the EU itself, it is obvious that they cannot participate in the mechanism designed to counter such aggression,” he said.
Within this framework, “we expect all European countries to align themselves with the self-evident understanding of protecting the European space, not only geographically, but also European values, democracy, and the European approach to human rights protection,” said Dendias.