Today, Saturday 5 September 2026, the Minister of National Defence, Nikos Dendias, inaugurated the Ministry of National Defence Pavilion at the 90th Thessaloniki International Fair, accompanied by the Deputy Minister of National Defence Thanasis Davakis, the Chief of Hellenic National Defence General Staff, General Dimitrios Choupis, the General Secretary of the Ministry of National Defence Antonios Ikonomou, the Chief of Hellenic Army General Staff, Lieutenant General Georgios Kostidis, the Chief of Hellenic Navy General Staff, Vice Admiral Dimitrios-Eleftherios Kataras HN, and the Chief of Hellenic Air Force General Staff, Lieutenant General (HAF) Dimosthenis Grigoriadis.
The main theme of the Ministry of National Defence’s participation in this year’s Thessaloniki International Fair is “A New Reality in the Armed Forces”.
In his address for the inauguration ceremony, the Minister of National Defence stated the following:
“Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the inauguration of the Ministry of National Defence Pavilion at the 90th Thessaloniki International Fair.
Ladies and gentlemen, on my way here, I was listening to a song which the older in the audience might know, “The wind of change” by Scorpions. It is a 90s song. At some point, the lyrics go: “The wind of change blows straight into the face of time”.
That is where we are today. Winds of change are blowing, great change in fact. What we are trying to do with this Pavilion is show that we have noticed this change and are trying to race in order to acquire whatever a country needs to have in order to be able to deal with any potential threat, wherever it may come from. We have named this “Agenda 2030”.
The “Agenda 2030” is a coherent framework for the transition into this new era where everything is changed. But also – because this is the Thessaloniki International Fair – I would like to tell you that it is a new economic paradigm. A new economic paradigm for the Ministry of National Defence and, I believe, a new paradigm for the Hellenic public sector.
We, at the Ministry of National Defence, and that’s how you will find it written in the budget, used to talk about defence spending. Our goal from this point onwards is to talk about defence investments. A new philosophy which aims to transform our country from a mere buying customer into a co-producer.
I.e. to transform Defence from a fiscal burden into a factor of growth of the Gross Domestic Product, a factor of growth of national wealth, a factor of economic growth.
But doing so requires certain parameters, certain frameworks in which to function.
The first, as I always say, is fiscal discipline: don’t spend money you don’t have. Our spending is well within our means. You are well aware that we went bankrupt precisely because we spent money we didn’t have; this can not happen again. And, by the way, speaking of what we owe, the debt, our debt as a percentage of GDP decreases. But, since we live in times of inflation, the debt must also decrease as an absolute amount. That’s why we are particularly careful at the Ministry of National Defence.
And something else we are striving for in this Ministry: the balance of payments deficit. The country can not import so much more than it exports. So, in the area of Defence, we must make products, export products, first in order to achieve exports and second to reduce imports. Otherwise we can not move forward.
Another thing we have in mind is the long-term planning.
We are the first government and I have the honour of being the first Minister to submit the first ever Long-Term Defence Armaments Programme, 12 and 8 years.
There must be visibility. Where do we go, what do we do? It is inconceivable that every Minister, every Chief of Defence can decide without any planning what they want, what they need and when. There must be a clear programme in the market for the innovation system and the defence companies to prepare. Defence investments can not be made overnight.
To reiterate, we want companies that produce in Greece. We do not want agents and representatives of foreign companies.
Another thing I told you before, the developmental role. Let’s be honest. Currently, the domestic production of defence is 0.7% of the Gross Domestic Product in total. This number is almost farcical, considering that by 2004 we had spent for the country’s defence €270 bn. in current prices, i.e. 8 times above the RRF amount. This investment can not result in a 0.7% Greek production.
So, since 2023, we have adopted an entirely new approach. We have awarded contracts for armament programmes worth €7 bn., but €1.5 bn. of this amount goes to the domestic defence industry and I am creating a special office at the Armaments Directorate to monitor these investments.
Just a few days ago, we awarded the contract for the country’s anti-air, anti-drone Dome programme. 19 Greek companies participate already. The value produced by Greek companies is €753 mil.
Furthermore, this Dome is the first Dome to be produced on European soil and, precisely because it is produced on European soil, it can be exported to European soil. This means that what we produce, we can export. The first Dome in Europe, the first Dome to be produced in Europe.
You understand the prospects. Regarding the Belharra programme, we changed the deal for the last frigate. 25% of the frigates is already produced in Greece.
All this, ladies and gentlemen, would have been inconceivable a few years ago. As would have been inconceivable that the Greek plants of the Ministry of National Defence, not to include the private sector, would by the end of 2026 be producing 15,000 drones annually. And this is only the beginning.
I will not refer to what the HCDI does, you know it. I just want you, when you visit the Pavilion, to take a look at the 4 anti-drone systems already made in Greece based on KETAK research.
“Kentavros”, which you know, “Yperion” which you don’t know, “Tilemachos” which you don’t know, and “Tefkros” which you don’t know yet. 4 different anti-drone systems. The complete system for every use.
A few days ago, at the Larissa prison, “Tefkros” and in fact a previous generation “Tefkros II” system – because what you will see here is “Tefkros III” – brought down a drone smuggling mobile phones and drugs into the prison. This means that we can use what we produce at the Ministry of National Defence to fully meet the country’s needs.
You know “Kentavros”. “Kentavros” is battle tested. It needs no further advertising.
In conclusion, I would like to say a couple of things about the Military Family. You know, the “Agenda 2030”, as I mentioned before, is trying to create a virtuous paradigm. A paradigm characterised by a spirit of economy and redistribution of the resource savings to our personnel.
As a result of the crisis, the Military Family saw its standard of living plummet, we all know this; this happened to the entire country, but today I want to talk about the standard of living of the Military Family. This is not acceptable and it is not right. It is not acceptable for the nation to have Greek Servicemen be reduced to have-nots. It is the State’s obligation to help raise their standard of living. It is the State’s overall responsibility to rebuild the middle class in Greece. It is not possible for Greeks to be divided into haves and have-nots.
We at the Ministry of National Defence have implemented this paradigm. And we have had tangible results. Our personnel saw raises ranging between 13% and 24%, but this is old news. What I want to say is that, in the second cycle of the Force Structure reform, we will achieve new savings of €160 to €180 mil. And we will ask the Ministry of Finance to apply again what had been agreed in the first phase, i.e. to redistribute the savings as pay raises to our personnel in order to be able to get them to the standard of living they are worth. This will not take place in the distant future. It is something that can be completed by mid 2027.
You know the rest about the Housing Programme. You know about the Assisted Living Housing. You know about the kindergartens. You know about the child care centres. We are creating a comprehensive support framework for the Military Family.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have always held the firm belief that our country can produce wealth. It can create and support a sustainable economic development model that can shift the balance of payments, increase the Gross Domestic Product, because this is the way to national survival.
And as Ministry of National Defence, I can assure you that if the “Agenda 2030” is implemented, if this planning is followed until 2030, then in 2030 our country will not only have the strongest Armed Forces in the history of Hellenism, but possibly one of the strongest Armed Forces, if not the strongest, in the European Union.
Thank you very much! Thank you for being here!”.
The inauguration ceremony was also attended by the Deputy Minister for Rural Development Ioannis Andrianos, the Deputy Minister of Education, Religious Affairs, and Sport Konstantinos Vlasis, the Deputy Minister of Migration and Asylum Sevi Voloudaki, the Deputy Minister of Shipping and Island Policy Stefanos Gikas, the Deputy Minister of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence Christos Dermentzopoulos, the Deputy Minister of Development Stavros Kalafatis, the Deputy Minister for Rural Development and Food Athanasios Kavvadas, the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Security Kostas Karagounis, the Deputy Minister of National Economy & Finance Dimitris Markopoulos, the Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy Maria-Eleni (Marilena) Soukouli, the Deputy Minister of Interior Vasilios-Petros Spanakis, the Deputy Minister of Development Lazaros Tsavdaridis, the Deputy Minister of Culture Iasonas Fotilas, as well as the EU Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tzitzikostas, Deputy Speakers of the Hellenic Parliament Giorgos Georgantas and Athanasios Bouras, the General Secretary of the Parliamentary Group of Nea Dimokratia Maximos Charakopoulos, MPs, Mayors, the Chief of the Hellenic Police, Lieutenant General Dimitrios Mallios, the General Director of the General Directorate for Defence Investments and Armaments of the Ministry of National Defence, Major General Ioannis Bouras, representatives of the Security Forces, representatives of authorities and bodies, Presidents of Unions of Retired Officers, and others.
Minister of National Defence N. Dendias Attends Signing of Memorandum of Understanding Between HAI and Generation 5 Holdings LLC-OPC (UAE)
During his visit to the Ministry of National Defence Pavilion at the Thessaloniki International Fair, Mr. Dendias attended the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) and Generation 5 Holdings LLC-OPC (UAE). HAI and Generation 5 (which acts as a business arm of Tawazun), through a broader Memorandum of Understanding, create the framework to explore a broad range of cooperation prospects, the most important of which is the creation of a regional aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility in the United Arab Emirates. This facility will be able to support current and new platforms of the UAE Air Force (including the KC-390) and customers in the broader region, exploiting the synergies between the two companies. This framework also includes the exploration of cooperation prospects in land systems and other cooperation prospects. The goal, after the signing of the MoU, is the signing of a Final Agreement, within the framework of IDEX 2027.
