Greece joins U.S.-led multinational pact to protect shipping in Red Sea

Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Greece on Thursday became the latest to join a U.S.-led international military coalition to protect merchant shipping navigating the Red Sea from attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Announcing he had ordered a naval frigate to be dispatched to the Red Sea in a post on X, Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said that as the world's largest shipping nation, Greece had a "primary interest in maintaining freedom of the sea lanes and the protection of seafarers' lives."

"At the behest of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, I asked the Chief of Defense Forces Gen. Konstantinos Floros and the Chief of the Naval General Staff, Vice Adm. Ioannis Drymoussi PN, to contribute a Greek Navy frigate to the multinational Operation Prosperity Guardian, for the protection of the merchant ships, the lives of seafarers, the global economy."

Greece -- which accounts for around a fifth of the world's merchant fleet by tonnage -- is expected to dispatch a forward team of Hellenic Navy staff to Bahrain from where Operation Prosperity Guardian is being coordinated.

It is unclear if Athens' decision was unilateral, or in response to Wednesday's announcement by the European Union's top foreign policy official that a meeting of the bloc's Political and Security Committee had agreed to the EU Naval Force participating in the 10-country security mission.

"Irresponsible Houthi actions are a threat to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea," Josep Borrell wrote in a post on X.

The EU Naval Force's contribution would be through its Spain-led ATALANTA maritime security operation in the Western Indian Ocean and Red Sea, Borrell said.

The existing EU mission to counter pirates targeting shipping off the Somali coast comprises vessels from Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy.

Britain and Italy have joined Operation Prosperity Guardian but as of Thursday, the status of two of the other eight countries the United States named when it unveiled the anti-Houthi naval alliance Monday -- France and Spain -- remained unclear.

France. which has a destroyer active in the region, said it was undecided on whether to take part. Spain said it could not join any mission unless it was sanctioned by either Brussels or the NATO alliance.

Steffen Hebestreit, a spokesman for the German government, said that given the mission could require participants to use force, any German involvement would require the approval of parliament because the mission did not come under the remit of the EU, NATO or the United Nations.