The Minister of National Defence Mr. Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos attended, on 29 September, the final stage of the exercise “AISIOS OIONOS ‘21” which was conducted at “Psilos Stalos” Firing Range, in Evros prefecture, as part of the “PARMENION” Field Exercise.

The exercise was also attended by the Deputy Minister of National Defence
Mr. Nikolaos Chardalias, the Chief of HNDGS General Konstantinos Floros,
the General Secretary of the Ministry of National Defence Mr. Antonios Oikonomou, the Chief of HAFGS Lieutenant General Georgios Blioumis, the Chief of HAGS Lieutenant General Charalambos Lalousis, the Chief of HNGS Vice Admiral Stylianos Petrakis.

The activities of the Distinguished Visitors’ Day of the exercise were attended by members of the Standing Committee on National Defence and Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Parliament, by MPs of New Democracy party, representatives of the Regional and Local Authorities, of the Church, as well as by Defence Attachés of foreign countries.

After the exercise was completed, the Minister of National Defence delivered the following address:

“Ladies and Gentlemen,

While I was watching this awesome demonstration of capacity and power by the Armed Forces, I recalled the words of General Robert Lee, Military Commander of the South in Gettysburg, just before the Forces were deployed on the field at that fatal attack: “It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.”

Indeed, the Armed Forces of our country must fight, if needed. But, in any case – and I would add, so that they do not need to fight – they must be fully trained, fully armed and ready for war, at any time. These elements, along with the morale compose this great deterrence force that our Armed Forces have.

Today, even the most dubious has been convinced about the great, the awesome deterrence force of our armed Forces, here, in the remote prefecture of Evros, during the final stage of “Parmenion 2021” exercise, of which we just watched a number of excellent military activities regarding planning, execution and organization.

The excellent performance of the participants, the morale and the professionalism of the personnel, the availability of assets, as well as the great fire capacity of the weapon systems we saw on the battle field, proved, once more, that the Armed Forces are still battle worthy, in high readiness and in an excellent operational situation. This is why I extend my warmest congratulations to all the participants, the organisers, the planners and those who conducted this exercise.

However, we should not rest assured. The security problems in the wider area, the hybrid character of threats and the broader geopolitical volatility do not allow us to rest assured. The broader geopolitical developments in our area and across the world, on a daily basis, require us to be constantly alert.

We take defence initiatives in every field and we prove in action that our country, despite the problems it faced over the previous years, has managed to be ahead of the developments and has found its pace to advance to more important achievements in many fields.

In this direction, the Armed Forces constantly upgrade their structures, they renew their manpower and are procured with the most advanced weapon systems which project fire power, last generation weapon systems, such as the recent procurement of “Rafale” aircraft, as well as the very recent agreement for the acquisition of “Belharra” frigates and the enormous reinforcement of our Fleet.

Our purpose, of course, is to upgrade our capabilities in critical fields, which have been proposed due to an analysis of the threat environment and to implement them as soon as possible.

At the same time, our country exercises an active Defence Diplomacy after having assumed a critical role in promoting defence initiatives and in creating, enhancing and reinforcing bilateral and multilateral cooperation schemes. A few days ago, I was in Austria, a country which shares many of our views and analyses in relation with the geopolitical environment in our region. Just last night, I returned from a one-day visit to France for the very important conclusion of the Defence Agreement. As I would say, it is something we have all been dreaming for long with our friendly and allied country, the only country that showed such great willingness to stand by our side, in solidarity, at all levels, in our region. Tomorrow, we will go to Cyprus in order to declare, through our presence there, once more, how close we are to our Cypriot brothers at any time.

The agreement that was signed yesterday with France is the most characteristic example of our active diplomatic effort, as well as of our effort in the field of Defence Diplomacy. It is the Establishment of a Strategic Partnership for the Cooperation in Defence and Security. It provides a high impact on Defence and Security and it promotes Greece’s stabilizing role globally. With France we are not only connected by a simple occasional relation created by the shift of geopolitical givens. Our relation with France has been strong across time and has a historical depth.

With the battle-worthiness of our defence system and the establishment of Alliances at bilateral and multilateral levels we raise our authority internationally, making Greece a pillar of stability and security in the unstable region of Eastern Mediterranean and South-eastern Europe.

In this environment, Greek people can feel the safety and security guaranteed by the Armed Forces.

The Armed Forces are everywhere every day, all over Greece, ready to fight any threat and to secure our territorial integrity and our vital interests.

The Armed Forces are reliable, strong and capable.

We are using their defence and deterrence capabilities and we assume initiatives of Defence Diplomacy, pointing out the national positions and promoting the interests of our country.

The political and military leadership of the Armed Forces, faithful to our duty, we send a message of determination, deterrence capacity and power and we keep Greece’s flag flying high.

Today, with our presence in this important military activity, we underscore, here, in the borderland of Evros, to every direction, that Greece is always ready to defend its sovereignty rights and it will do it decisively and effectively, if required.

I assure you that the Ministry of National Defence and the Hellenic government are working round the clock for the country to be able to respond effectively to modern challenges and to ensure our national sovereignty and our vital interests.

The Armed Forces of Greece, as the “sword of Greece” (this is a phrase I like to use), ought to be in this exceptional position in order to send this strong deterrence message to every direction. Our job, as far as the Political leadership of the Ministry is concerned, is to work for it, in an excellent cooperation with the military leadership (because what we see is the result of a team effort).

Allow me to express a personal opinion. It is worthy to do what we do, to work how we work and to give a bit more of our personal time, of our “being” for these Armed Forces. This personnel, who showed you only a small part of their professionalism, their sense of mission and duty, their ability to respond to every mission they are assigned and, finally, their quite strong patriotism, deserve it.

They deserve it, and we will continue this effort even stronger. This is the last thing and the sure thing I can speak about, also on behalf of the Political Leadership, and I am sure that the Military leadership also agrees with it and we will continue in this way.

Thank you for your attendance”.