Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias Visits Ioannina

February 3, 2025

On Saturday 1 February 2025, the Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias, accompanied by the Chief of Hellenic Army General Staff, Lieutenant General Georgios Kostidis and the Commanding General of C’ Army Corps / NRDC – GR, Lieutenant General Athanasios Garinis, visited the base of the 8th Motorised Brigade “IPIROS” in Ioannina.

After being briefed by the Commanding General of the 8th Motorised Brigade, Brigadier General Vasilios Kolios, on the operational mission of the Brigade, the Minister of National Defence addressed the personnel, stating the following:

It is a great honour for me to be here today, in the 8th – anymore – Brigade, in Ioannina.

We live in times of rapid geopolitical developments and Greece plays its role as a stabilisation factor of the broader region.

This New Structure of the Armed Forces, as it was approved of by the Governmental National Security Council after notifying the Hellenic Parliament, serves this logic and incorporates this strategy.

It is an overall reformation in the framework of the “2030 Agenda”. It ensures versatility, operational readiness, and technological innovation. Mainly, however, it is a complete change in mentality.

We cannot respond to the needs and challenges of the 21st Century with the assets and the mentality of the 20th Century. A total reformation is required. Part of this reformation is the targeted merging of camps. With the aim to create versatile military formations, with proper equipment and greater fire-power.

These changes save funds – significant funds – but that is not the only purpose. They aim at improving our combat capabilities as well as the capability of rapid response against the existing threats to our Country.

The New Structure of Forces is specifically designed so that it can respond to modern threats. From traditional ones to hybrid ones.

We seek to create a dynamic and versatile deterrent force.

So that our country can keep existing and be able to defend its territorial integrity, its sovereignty, and its sovereign rights.

The State has a constitutional obligation to have modern Armed Forces at its disposal, which can carry our their mission. We need an army that does not rely on its identity as a bureaucratic mechanism, but, rather, that keeps developing as a defender of the Country. So that it can defend the Nation in essence.

As it has done in the past, so it does in the present, and so it will in the future. Because we know very well that our independence is not a right that should be taken for granted.

It is our daily duty, which is undertaken by the personnel of the Armed Forces with bravery and self-sacrifice.

The Country is grateful for that”.

Following, Mr. Dendias visited the Metropolis of Ioannina, where he was welcomed by His Grace the Metropolitan of Ioannina, Mr. Maximos. Next, he visited the Region of Epirus accompanied by MPs for Ioannina Maria Kefala and Giorgos Amyras, and met the Head of Region for Epirus Αlexandros Kahrimanis, as well as the Town Hall, where he had a discussion with the Mayor of Ioannina, Thomas Begas.