The Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias addressed the following statement to welcome the President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias shortly before his briefing by the political and military leadership in the Conference Room of the Ministry of National Defence:

 “Mr. President,

Allow me to welcome you to the Ministry of National Defence and to thank you for this great honour you are doing to the Ministry of National Defence, to me, to my close associates, the Alternate Minister Fofi Gennimata and the Deputy Minister Giannis Lambropoulos, as well as to the military leadership of the Armed Forces, and through them to the entire Armed Forces of our country.
I would also like to assure you that the Armed Forces of the country are absolutely ready to defence the territorial integrity, on the one hand, and the pride of the Hellenic Republic, on the other hand.”