Greece and Canada, two countries facing major forest fires in recent years, announced on Monday that they wanted to strengthen their cooperation on emergency situations and confirmed the purchase by Athens of seven Canadian water bombers.
“We witnessed the signing by Greece and the Canadian Commercial Corporation of a contract for the purchase by Greece of seven state-of-the-art DHC-515 firefighting aircraft,” the former said in a joint statement. Canadian Minister, Justin Trudeau, and his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
“These planes will contribute to the fight against the devastating forest fires which are increasingly ravaging southern Europe,” added the two leaders.
A few days earlier, Mr. Mitsotakis, visiting Canada on Sunday and Monday, had indicated to Globe and Mail that an order estimated at 360 million euros was to be placed with the de Havilland company to strengthen its fleet of water bombers.
The DHC-515 aircraft, launched by the company in 2022, will be built in Calgary, a city in western Canada.
The Greek government specified last week that delivery of the first two planes should take place in 2027.
These planes, used to fight forest fires, make up the bulk of Greece’s aging air fleet.
On either side of the Atlantic, 2023 was the worst year for wildfires in both countries.
Nearly 175,000 hectares of Greek forest were ravaged and more than 20 people killed, according to the National Observatory of Athens, while Canada experienced a historic season that same year with more than 18 million hectares burned and 200 000 displaced.