The negotiations mainly concern military bases where US forces are present, according to the newspaper eKathimerini.

Athens has long been trying to persuade US forces to deploy on a number of Greek islands, with the exception of Crete, where NATO's naval support base in the Gulf of Suda is located.

The US armed forces refuse to consider a presence on the islands.

Greece is still offering the island of Skiros as a possible base. Four members of the US House of Representatives, three of whom are Greek-Americans (Grace Meng, Gus Bilirakis, Dina Titus, and Nicole Malliotakis), have introduced a bill aimed at establishing a US military presence on the islands in the Aegean Sea.

The destruction of the infrastructure of the Greek base, which houses the 1st Air Brigade of the Army, by a severe storm in September 2023, requires new facilities to be found to accommodate American helicopters.

This will mean expanding the capacity of the 110th Air Squadron in Larissa.

The Greek authorities agree that there is room for two new bases to be used by US forces. One will be the shooting range in Petrochori, which is already familiar to US forces, who use it for field exercises; US officers are also interested in the military base at Daliopis, east of Thessaloniki in northern Greece, where a Greek armored division was previously stationed.

Some kind of US unit headquarters could be located there.

US forces will remain in the northeastern port of Alexandroupolis, which, due to its relative proximity to Eastern European countries, including Ukraine, is considered a location of great strategic importance.

The US also plans to spend $42 million on upgrading facilities at the Souda base and the nearby 115th Air Wing, including a new facility for repairing special forces aircraft.

Greece appears determined to avoid the spending cuts announced by Defense Minister Pete Hagseth, which will affect other facilities in Europe.

The Souda base is an important NATO facility, and the 115th Air Wing has been crucial to recent US Air Force operations in the Middle East and Iran. | BGNES