WHASHINGTON — The US welcomes Greece's continuous efforts to upgrade its defence capabilities and the fact that that it is fulfilling its NATO commitments for the planned defence spending, the US State Department noted following the new defence agreement signed with France.

"The US and Greece enjoy a robust defence relationship rooted in our shared values," a State Department spokesperson said.

"We strongly support Greece’s role in creating stability in the region and look forward to continuing to work closely with Greece to advance our shared goals for peace and prosperity in the region, including through our robust relationship with the Hellenic Navy," the spokesperson said.

"While we have not seen the details of Greece and France’s multi-year defence agreement, we note that the longstanding US-Greece Mutual Defence Cooperation Agreement (MDCA) was updated in 2019 to the mutual benefit of our two nations and regional security," the spokesperson added.

The official also said that significant progress on reaching an agreement on potential updates to the MDCA has been made, including extending the agreement indefinitely from its current annual duration that will help advance peace in the region and shared defence and security goals between close NATO allies.