In a tender for a project to establish an international flight training center at the Kalamata air base, the Israeli company Elbit won over the Canadian CAE, according to Proto-Thema newspaper.
The offer was evaluated on the Israeli side by the Ministry of National Defense and the Greek government as a whole as being more beneficial than the Canadian CAE offer, both in terms of the financial component and in terms of training.The cost of the Israeli offer is 1.375 billion euros for a period of 22 years, meaning that it will cost the state budget 62.5 million euros annually, whereas, the Canadian bid was valued at 1.254 billion euros over 20 years.
The newspaper pointed out that “the strong argument of the Israelis is a good cooperation relationship with Greece, the joint training of Greek air force pilots in joint maneuvers with the Israeli air force and understanding Turkey’s destabilizing role in the eastern Mediterranean region.”
On December 10, the European Union imposed sanctions on Ankara for what it described as its “illegal and hostile behavior” towards Greece and Cyprus.Last Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he wanted to open a “new page” with the European Union.
source:almasdarnews.com
