Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has hinted at deepening cooperation between Greece and Australia during wildfire seasons.
Speaking in Greece’s Parliament on Monday, Mitsotakis said that due to limited resources in Europe to help deal with wildfires, his government would consider cooperating with “countries in the Southern Hemisphere like Australia.”
“As there aren’t many aerial firefighting resources in Europe in general, we think we can cooperate with countries in the Southern Hemisphere such as Australia,” Mitsotakis stressed.
“We can share our fire resources with them during winter, and they can share theirs with Greece in summer so we have them at our disposal during the fire season.”
This statement by Mitsotakis comes as Australian specialist fire fighting helicopters from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland are currently in Greece fighting wildfires ravaging the country this week.
The Bell214ST helicopters have been contracted by McDermott Aviation and were captured helping fight recent fires in Mandra, Attica.
This is the fourth fire season where McDermott Aviation have sent helicopters to support Greece throughout the summer.