Greece seems increasingly like a fallback position if Turkey goes fully bad rather than being temporarily, er ... cranky, and opens the Turkish Straits to the Russian navy.
American energy could could be exported to Europe via Greece:
There is “good news on the energy front, good news on the ports – all the kind of things that can make life better for the people of Thessaloniki and the region,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in the northern port city during last month’s visit to the country, in comments that underscored the crucial role northern Greece is playing in America’s geopolitical energy plans.
What are some of these plans? Carrying out more American investments, particularly in the field of digital technology, and mobilizing the ports of Alexandroupoli and Kavala in a bid to wean Europe off Russian energy by channeling American natural gas via the northern Greek coast to the Balkans and Central Europe.
Note that one reason for gaining access to those ports is to deny Russia or China the chance to penetrate them. This is on top of other moves in support of Greece.
Like rotating American forces through Greece and deploying American drones to Greece. And recently, a U.S. Navy expeditionary sea base stopped in Greece on its way to its new basing at Souda Bay in Crete:
The “Woody” arrived Sunday at a port in Astakos, Greece, where it is undergoing scheduled maintenance after a 43-day mission in support of U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa said in a statement. No U.S. Navy warship has been based in Greece in at least 40 years.
Which is nice because Greece's NATO commitment was in question and it wasn't that long ago that I was speculating on whether Greece could be flipped away by Russia from NATO based on Greece's difficulties with the European Union. I worried about China's influence, too.
Instead, Greece is now doubling down on NATO. Heck, I think Crete should be the new home for AFRICOM. And Cyprus would be useful for a replacement air base for Incirlik in Turkey. As we seem to be pondering.
Turkey's decisions are causing reactions by a lot of countries to counter Turkey, including repairing American-Greek relations.
UPDATE: How cute! This analyst thinks that the European Union can forge a common policy for dealing with the troublesome Turks! All the more reason the proto-imperial EU will try to strip away the prefix.
UPDATE: The Greeks are certainly stepping up:
Greek Minister of Defense Nikos Panagiotopoulos has announced plans to create a new Hellenic naval base on Crete as Greece leverages its southernmost island as a pillar of security policy in the Eastern Mediterranean amid ongoing tensions with Turkey.Arab states opposed to Turkey are also checking out Crete. The more the merrier if Turkey gets worse.
