On Wednesday 5 June 2024, the Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias visited the 308 Advanced Base Plant, in Evosmos, Thessaloniki, accompanied by the Secretary General of the Ministry of National Defence Antonios Oikonomou.
Mr. Dendias, in the presence of the Commander of the Higher Army Support Military Command “THESEUS” Lieutenant General Dimitrios Bolomytis, was briefed by the Commander of the 308 Advanced Base Plant Lieutenant Colonel (TECH) Alexandros Peristeris on the work and the current activities of the Plant and made a tour.
In his address to the members of the 308 Advanced Base Plant Mr. Dendias stated:
“Mister Secretary General, General, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great honour that I visit today the 308 Advanced Base Plant, here in Thessaloniki.
The logic in my visit is to form a picture of the capabilities of the Hellenic Armed Forces first to maintain our material, but also to proceed, if possible, to innovative solutions regarding the current problems we face.
The first thing I want to do is to declare my respect to the effort you make, mainly the effort during the hard years of the crisis, because you know very well that for ten years the Greek State did not have the opportunity to support the Armed Forces with sufficient resources to maintain our material, the systems that we already had. Without your effort, the Hellenic Armed Forces would not be ready to face the crisis that they had to face in 2020 and 2021.
Today we are at a new era; we can’t spare the resources. We could never spare them in Greece. But we are at an era when the country becomes strong, with new systems and the maintenance of the existing ones.
Yet, we have a long way ahead. We have created an agenda in the Ministry of National Defence, the “Agenda 2030”.
The “Agenda 2030” is an ambitious, probably the most ambitious, effort to transform the Hellenic Armed Forces after the change of regime, in the Greek history, the history of the modern Greek State, as the Prime Minister said.
We want to enter a new era. It is necessary to enter a new era. As you know, everything around us changes. Our geopolitical horizon, I regret to say, is full of hardships and clouds.
As I have said so many times and I will not be tired of repeating it, we do not have the advantage of Luxembourg, or Belgium, to have secure borders around us.
Even when the air and the waters in the Aegean are calm, there are claims on the country, and there is dispute on its geographical and legal borders.
There is an existing threat of war against it. I do not know any other country in the planet against which a threat of war has been issued, in case it exercises its legal right. A right protected by the international treaties, the Charter of the UN and the acquis communautaire.
The “Agenda 2030” also has another goal; to convey a new culture, which will lead to the production, by Greek hands and Greek minds, of innovative solutions that may tackle the challenges prioritised by the Armed Forces themselves; solutions required by the General Staffs, to cover needs and problems.
A few days ago the Greek Parliament passed with great majority, among a pre-election period, a majority of 80% up to 90%, provisions that lead to the establishment of a new legal entity, the Hellenic Centre of Innovation, which will be the agency that will try to connect the needs of the Hellenic Armed Forces with the productive capability of the human and systemic capital in our country.
That is the capability to cover, to say it practically, our needs on our own, especially our needs in force multipliers, in products of advanced technology, and the maintenance of the systems already in operation.
When I walked and toured in the plant before, I saw some impressive solutions. We must and we will all make a huge effort in the years to come, so that the next decade the Hellenic Armed Forces enter a new era.
In this effort, apart from our professional members and the civilian employees, we need a unanimous perception, of which, as I said before, you are a necessary element.
The huge majority in the Parliament declares the great national consent in the effort; it does not involve Parties, sides, Ministers, governments. It is about our Country’s survival.
At this point, after thanking you and having declared my respect for your effort for everything you did until today, I would like to ask you to continue the effort in the future, with my promise that this future will be prosperous, we will bring the Armed Forces of our country at a level of power never seen before in the modern Greek State.
Once again I thank you for the opportunity I had to meet you, to shake the hands of some of you, to observe the project to the extent possible, the results of your effort and really ask you to keep going in the future.
I thank you once again”.
