In an interview he gave on Tuesday, 17 October 2017, on public TV to the journalists Nikos Panaghiotopoulos and Meri Pollali, the Alternate Minister of National Defence, Dimitris Vitsas, stated the following:
On the Prime Minister’s visit to the US and his own visit before on what the Americans want regarding the Souda Bay base:
First of all, the US base in Souda Bay exists, it is not something new. Given that, I would like to focus on this: a lot of work on this matter has been done both in Greece and the US, and this has been going on for a while. I mean things in Greece have developed a lot in order to arrive at this meeting, which has caused a lot of interest in the US political and business scene, with many, allow me to say, weapons. I.e. the fact that Greece has largely overcome all the difficulties of the past years, we have achieved high primary surpluses, we have achieved our goals, and we all agree that the following evaluations must be closed quickly and everyone expects to put the MoU period behind us as soon as possible. That is one priority and another one is that the conditions for stability have been created in Greece and, at the same time, Greece remains a beacon of peace, co-operation, and geostrategic stability in an environment that is to a great extent hit by instability, war, refugee flows, migration flows, etc.
On whether Greece’s geostrategic position is properly exploited:
We use our advantages primarily to our own benefit. We want to have a country of peace, stability, co-operation, and co-development with the rest of the region. At the same time, large countries such as the US, also have interests in the region and also want to see if it is stabilised and the centre of this stability, at many levels. I will mention two: the former is energy, which is very important, and the latter is the fact that, in the surrounding countries, in the Balkans, as well as in North Africa and the Middle East, the weapon systems are of US manufacture and, hence, they would be interested in a centre for upgrades, processing, maintenance, etc. in the most stable country in the region.
I do not mean one centre, I mean Greece as a centre. We have state and private defence industry companies, which are good examples, but we also have difficult examples of co-operations with other companies, mainly US companies. That was the goal of my recent visit to the US, to promote our defence industries and its capabilities. Another goal was to promote certain ideas for historical tourism to US veterans, who are a very strong institution in the US. The culmination of this effort is the establishment of a branch of the veterans union in Greece.
On whether it was discussed to extend the agreement on the Souda Bay base for over a year:
It is a matter handled at government and prime minister level. We express our views, but I don’t think there are many people in Greece asking for the suspension of the operation of Souda Bay. Now, whether the agreement will be for one year or two, it is the same discussion. Many things are heard, but today we are focused on other matters, such as how Greece can be a source of good news. Perhaps for the journalists good news is no news.
In the meetings I had in the US I said that we have an expression in Greece, “we don’t have to rediscover America”, but right now we need the entire world to rediscover Greece, a new Greece and not just its history. The response we for from our meetings and contacts towards this direction – and the Prime Minister and the other ministers, because the Prime Minister will come to create a framework and then his associates, the ministers, etc. will examine the specifics – is that there is an increased interest for investments from the US, from the Diaspora and others.
Right now, I can tell you that, beyond the traditional area of tourism, they are very interested in energy, in the show business, the Prime Minister did not visit the Greek-American owned studios for nothing, they are very interested in co-operations and common production lines in the defence industry, as well as in the role Greece can play in construction in countries which are expected to proceed to their reconstruction.
On whether the co-operation with the Americans makes him feel uncomfortable and whether he has an ideological problem, as New Democracy accuses the government:
New Democracy, I heard its leader talk about coincidences. Nothing is coincidental and this is proven by everything that has been done during the past two and a half years. It is not a coincidence that unemployment dropped, it is not a coincidence that we successfully returned to markets, it is not a coincidence that in today’s meeting with Christine Lagarde we expressed our views so clearly.
On your question, whether there is an ideological problem, I would like to remind you that in 1974 it was the founder of New Democracy that took the country out of NATO. That was fine. We should make this clear. Second, New Democracy must tell us exactly what they want: Do they want us to tell the US “we want nothing to do with you”? And finally, I am very comfortable to the extent this helps our country come out of the crisis and at the same time play the roles I mentioned earlier.
The world has changed. It has changed, bringing new difficulties, as well as new capabilities. The situation has changed in our neighbourhood, as well as in the US. We should not make logical leaps. This must be considered in conjunction with what one expects to do during a certain period. Currently, we have a few extraordinary and recurring problems, for example the situation in Turkey, the risk of an accident due to the violations, the provocativeness, which in the end affects our country socially, as well as economically. The assistance that can be provided by the US, as well as other countries, is important.
On Turkish provocativeness and whether Greece is ready to respond to it and the planning for the procurement of new weapon systems:
Our planning is defensive, we have no offensive plans. Greece has acquired its rights and sovereignty through international treaties and International Law and, before that, through great struggles, i.e. nothing was simply given to us and the Greek people, and of course its Armed Forces, stand always ready to respond to any provocation. But we want peace and, as a government, we work towards this direction at the diplomatic level, as well as at the Armed Forces level.
That is what we want, because we can see opportunities for co-operation. We do not want to export the crisis to our neighbour. A crisis it is mainly faced with on its other borders. We do not want the refugee issue, an issue of human dignity, to be used as a weapon of international politics. This is unacceptable. Now, if you look at the map and the events, you will see that conflicts are not what they were two years ago, so the reductions or increases in refugee flows are not related to this, but to the fact that someone manipulates a valve and plays with people’s lives.
As a government, we try under difficult conditions to shape the terms for co-operation and use all means available to us to keep the EU – Turkey agreement active, which is important, to speed up the asylum procedures and bring those eligible to mainland Greece, where the situation is much better than the islands, relieve them. We will never return to 2016 or 2015. When we talk about an increase of flows, we mean that in 2015 we had 5,000 people per day and now we have 5,000 people or so during the entire summer.
On whether there is a plan for the upgrade and the procurement of new fighter aircraft:
Currently, we have four or five programmes, others are active, such as the maritime co-operation aircraft, which is an active contract going forward, the new helicopters purchased from the US Army on very good terms, and we have ahead of us the potential upgrade of our fighter aircraft and the potential acquisition of a number of helicopters on special terms. On the other hand, I have said many times that the solution is not to follow others in an arms race, the solution is to shape the terms and the doctrine for deterrence, invest in the personnel – and we invest a lot in education and training – and make targeted purchases that act as force multipliers. Conflicts now are not conducted like they used to.
