MOSCOW
(Reuters) -
Greece is negotiating with Russia for the purchase of missiles for its
S-300 anti-missile systems and for their maintenance, Russia 's RIA
news agency quoted Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos as saying on
Wednesday.
The report
followed a visit by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last week to Moscow , where he won
pledges of Russian moral support and long-term cooperation but no fresh funds
to help avert bankruptcy for his heavily indebted nation.
NATO member
Greece
has been in possession of the Russian-made S-300 air defense systems since the
late 1990s.
"We
are limiting ourselves to replacement of missiles (for the systems)," RIA
quoted Kammenos, who is in Moscow
for a security conference, as saying.
"There
are negotiations between Russia
and Greece
on the maintenance of the systems ... as well as for the purchase of new
missiles for the S-300 systems," he said.
The Greek
defense ministry in Athens
later issued a statement quoting Kammenos as saying: "The existing defense
cooperation programs will continue. There will be maintenance for the existing
programs."
No other
details were immediately available.
It was
unclear where Greece ,
whose leftist government is struggling to secure the funds to meet its debt
repayments, would find the money to buy more missiles.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin said after his talks with Tsipras in Moscow
last week that Athens
had not asked for money to ease its debt crisis.
However, Greece is keen to revive its traditionally good
relations with Moscow , prompting unease among
some of its European partners at a time of deep tension between Russia and the West over the Ukraine crisis.
On Monday,
the Kremlin said Putin had signed a decree ending a self-imposed ban on
delivering its S-300 anti-missile system to Tehran
after world powers, including Russia ,
reached an interim deal with Iran
on curbing its nuclear program.
(Reporting
by Lidia Kelly and Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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