On Thursday, September 27th 2018, the Deputy Minister of National Defence, Ms. Maria Kollia Tsaroucha, attended the Military Academy, where she opened the 2nd Land Forces Conference. The Conference was welcomed by the Chief HNDGS, Admiral E. Apostolakis, the Chief HAGS, Lieutenant General A. Stefanis, the Commander of LANDCOM LTG Thomson, the Deputy Commander of US Army EUROPE MG John Gronski, professors from Greek and foreign Universities, while it was attended by Honorary Chiefs HNDGS and HAGS, retired members from Greek and foreign Armed Forces, the Ambassador of Israel, Ms. Irit Ben – Abba Vitale and other guests.
The Deputy Minister, Ms. Maria Kollia Tsaroucha, at her opening address stated the following:
“It is with particular pleasure and honour that I welcome our distinguished guests and our reputable speakers at the 2nd Land Forces Conference that is jointly co-organized by the Hellenic Army General Staff and the Institute of International Relations of Panteion University. The presence at the Conference of distinguished officers, academics and special analysts will be extremely valuable for promoting productive dialogue and debate and for encouraging military thinking in times of manifold. The technological and geopolitical developments, involving ever increasing parts of population, open new and to a great extent unexplored possibilities and needs for each area of human activity.
Spaces of minor strategic importance once, such as automation, information, social and electronic networks, now create around them sets of potential conflict and acts of war, whose criticality for our country’s Defence and Security has not been accurately assessed yet. Developments are also characterized by the constant change of facts and the interconnection of many, and perhaps independent until recently, areas of knowledge often in unexpected ways. The foregoing stresses the need for high, accurate and wide information and training of our officers, who undertake the critical and pressing task of strategic and defence planning. So that they would be able to respond to any potential challenge, no matter where it comes from.
Our country’s political leadership acknowledges the critical importance of developments and mainly seeks the increase of the knowledge and experience provided in all related areas, so that the creation of an integrated political and strategic planning, taking the foregoing into consideration and demonstrating high prospects of security and success, would be possible.
The distinctions of our speakers and guests at international level and their valuable contribution to the wide and critical field of military science will provide us with valuable assets of knowledge and their expertise.
We are also particularly delighted to announce that upon the completion of the works of the 1st day, the cooperation between the Hellenic Army General Staff and the Institute of International Relations of Panteion University will be sealed with the signature of a relevant memorandum.
Conveying the greetings of the Minister of National Defence, I now welcome the opening of the 2nd Land Forces Conference, in the confidence that it will fulfill its objectives with great success. Thank you all for being with us and I wish that your presence at the Conference will prove valuable and effective.”
