The Minister of National Defence Panos Kammenos participated in the EU Foreign Affairs and Defence Ministers Meeting which took place in Brussels.

The Minister of National Defence made the following statement:

“One of the most important conclusions of the joint EU Foreign Affairs and Defence Ministers Meeting, with NATO Secretary General in attendance, was that the issue of immigration has now become a defence issue.

This is what we Greeks first saw some time ago, and it was treated by European Media with relatively ill intent; that among the real immigrants – who are numerous, most of them are indeed immigrants – terrorists might be trafficked towards Europe, via Greece as well.  

This is an issue that concerns the entire European Union and measures should be taken; this is something the Secretary General of NATO also admitted. Therefore, from now on, proceeding with a policy designed by the European Union – first for Africa’s north borderline, which corresponds to Europe’s south maritime borders – as far as the operations approved by the UN Security Council to be launched are concerned, the problem currently faced by Europe’s eastern borders, by Greece, is now recognised as a European problem.

We shall do everything in order to continue the search and rescue operations, as we must, respecting human rights but, at the same time, in order to prevent the entrance of people who want to create problems in the broader region.

Another important point is to recognise that a movement of such groups in the Balkans exists. I would like to be clear on this: we will not allow the expansion of such groups in the Balkans, and we will be particularly cautious with the provocation we observe in the Balkan region lately”.