The Minister of National Defence Mr. Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos participated in the Informal Meeting of European Union Defence Ministers, held in Ljubljana, on 1 – 2 September 2021. The principal subjects of the discussion were the recent developments in Afghanistan, the operational engagement of the E.U., as well as the cooperation of the European Union with NATO and the United Nations.

During the Working Session, the Minister of National Defence pointed out the new security challenges related to the situation in Afghanistan and the possibility of an instrumentalization of migrant flows towards Europe.

At the joint Working Lunch of EU-NATO-UN, which was attended by NATO Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Mircea Geoană, and by the Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Mr. Jean-Pierre François Renaud Lacroix, Mr. Panagiotopoulos acknowledged the constantly positive and constructive cooperation among the three Organisations and he stressed that the current challenges require a further reinforcement of this cooperation on matters of common interest.

Particularly, on NATO, he underlined that any development of the cooperation should rely on the principle of inclusiveness, that is the participation of all EU member-states in specific actions and initiatives, as well as on the autonomy of each Organization’s decision making procedures.

After the conclusion of the Informal Meeting, the Minister of National Defence delivered the following statement:

“We participated in the Informal Meeting of European Union Defence Ministers in Ljubljana, which was held in the aftermath of the developments in Afghanistan. More specifically, during the Working Session, I had the chance to point out the new security challenges related to the situation in Afghanistan.

I underscored, together with other Ministers, the need to complete the evacuation of the people who supported us during our presence in Afghanistan, to ensure the protection of human rights in this country and to prevent a potential instrumentalization of the migrant flows towards Europe.

For this reason, I stressed that it is necessary for the E.U. to provide contribution to Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries, mostly as far as the prevention of refugee flows is concerned.

I underlined the high importance our country lends to the contribution of the E.U. missions in areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, Mozambique, Libya and, of course, to the Western Balkans, and I also pointed out the importance of IRINI operation for the security and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean.”