“I wish to thank you, mostly those of you who came from different parts of Greece, for this meeting of the Supreme Councils of the three branches. As you may remember, this is how we started about one and a half year ago, with such a meeting in which I had the opportunity to give you the main guidelines for our defence policy and to be briefed at the same time.
Today, of course, the character of this meeting is different and I believe that this is how we must work. This is why I often refer to the need for the institutional order to return generally to our national system.
 
Today, I am here with the political and military leadership of the Ministry, in this farewell meeting. I want you to know that, as I said also at the first time when I took office as Minister of Defence on my first tenure, this is how I feel now too. I kept my word that during this period I would be too a part of this big family of the Armed Forces.

National defence is a top priority policy for our Nation, for the Greek state and I feel really lucky that for the second time I was in charge of perhaps the most important Ministry of our country.

I am proud of the leadership, the personnel and the cadres of the Armed Forces, of both military and civilian. Beyond and above their everyday struggle to defend our country’s independence, they offer a big, great and significant social work for the country, without losing for even one moment their devotion to their main mission.

You know that Greece is in a strategically significant, yet unstable and often volatile geopolitical crossroad. Although it is a permanent islet of stability and a factor of peace in the region, it must constantly keep its Armed Forces at a high level to deter any views to change the situation by anybody who wants to covet the interests of the Greek people.

During the entire period of the financial adaptation of our country on new and more stable financial bases, the Armed Forces responded effectively. Despite the budget cuts in the Ministry, they kept their total battleworthiness; with less funds than before, but with higher willingness to work, with excessive earnestness and professionalism, the personnel of the army did what most analysts found unfeasible: they protected our defence system from the adverse situation of the financial crisis and made it stronger, more powerful and sure of itself; more effective and operationally ready. And I know that this was not easy at all.

Since June 2013, when I took office as a Minister of National Defence for the second time, along with the leadership of the Armed Forces in an excellent every day cooperation from the very first moment I took office, we scheduled the implementation of an ambitious plan for the revision and reinforcement of the total effectiveness of the army.

We rationalized its function, we saved resources, we reinforced the jointness and interoperability, as well as the operational capability of the Armed Forces. We were interested in the personnel’s needs, we solved old and complex problems of institutional nature while at the end we delivered modern weapon systems which remained unused for years.

The operational firing of S-300, the integration of the supermodern submarine PIPINOS in the fleet, the completion of the modernization of the submarine OKEANOS, the oncoming integration in the fleet of the other two submarines, the upgrade of P-3 aircraft, the procurement of ammunition for battle tanks and for the Artillery of the Army, the action taken for the acquisition of M1 Abrams tanks and Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) from the US Army reserve as well as the solution of pending issues (repayment of the rest of the sum) for the delivery of three VOSPER missile boats, the modernization of F-16 aircraft, are only some of the benefits of a hard and intensive effort and you may know that even this was not easy. Because if it were easy, people before us would have done it.

At the same time, we reorganized the Armed Forces paying attention to cohesion, flexibility, rapid deployment and big firing volume. We declared our presence in everything related to the international peace and order. The flag’s attendance was one of the first strategic choices we made under the heavy burden of the financial circumstances which – we must admit it – had damaged our country’s image globally.

We merged units, we utilized the personnel and we created multifaceted and sufficiently staffed camps. We solved the big problem of follow on support which you had been pointing out all these years. We paid attention to the maintenance of the existent material and we consolidate the spirit and the importance of realistic training among units.

The motto “train yourself as your will fight” stopped just being a theoretical saying and was practically applied in everyday training. We multiplied the exercises and increased their difficulty rate. In figures, many more exercises took place over this period of one and a half year than over the previous 7-8 years. Also, training activities no longer follow the usual methods but they are based on constantly changing and realistic scenarios adapted on modern war practices.

We upgraded the training provided in the military academies. We created the first – in cooperation with the Technical University of Crete – Master degree in the Hellenic Military Academy, we upgraded the National Defence College into a Tertiary Education Institution.

We pay particular attention to training and developing our personnel’s skills. We invest in the knowledge of our personnel. We defended the deterring power of our country, we annihilated also the unnecessary expenses and we contributed significantly to the national collective effort of our country’s adaptation on a firm financial basis.

At the same time, in early 2014, we performed one of the most successful Presidencies of the Council of European Union in the field of European Defence and Security; a period in which we demonstrated the capabilities of defence diplomacy. And all this explains the missions accomplished by my colleagues, Ministers, and me, as well as by the leadership of the Armed Forces, not only in our wider geopolitical environment, but everywhere our national interests were wither at risk or somehow affected.

All the above was publicly acknowledged both by our allies and by our partners in the European Union. And I say this because the upgrade, the radical upgrade of the effectiveness and defence diplomacy has a special importance for Greece today in this unsure and unstable environment, in this line of instability extending from Tunisia to Ukraine and where we, through our defence system, demonstrate our stabilizing role. We are the oasis of security and stability in the western, southeastern and eastern borders of Europe. This is now globally recognized.

Every day I realize that the Armed Forces respond fully to the duties assigned by the country. They perform their mission properly and without any operational compromises, ensuring in the best possible manner our country’s interests and objectives.

Chiefs and general officers of all the three branches, members of the Supreme Council of the Three Branches.

In less than one and a half year, we achieved a lot; quite a lot; more than what was recorded in previous statistic figures and this was thanks to our excellent cooperation, to the common understanding of the objectives we had set.

I wish to thank you frankly for your contribution, for your excellent and substantial and willing contribution, each of you personally. Of all of you, certainly the Chief of HNDGS General Kostarakos with whom we are in contact every day. I would like to make also a comment which reflects something of what I am telling you. Because there were complaints many times, they were written, I want you to know that your military leadership as a Chief of HNDGS, and the leadership of all three leaders gave every day struggles over all this period not only for the completion of the programmes by providing correct advice to the political leadership because this is their role.

We are not here to act as generals, neither to pretend we are experts on military issues. This had to do with a new institutional concept of the relations between the political and military leadership. It is your people who give the struggle every day to promote issues and achieve a solution. And you are still Greek citizens and this has to do with your dignified living.

And also I wish to thank the Chief of the Army for his excellent cooperation, the Chief of the Navy. I am kidding when I say that he could not have imagined that he would become one day a Shipyards’ owner; and the Chief of the Air Force. Their job was not easy. And because some time, some of you will succeed them in the future I want you to know that they are exemplary leaders.

I would like to make a special reference to the political leadership. You know that under the present political circumstance there are political representatives of different parties. During my first tenure, when the situation was more difficult and now we gave a brilliant example that we can communicate effectively beyond and above political parties. I am talking about my excellent cooperation with Mrs. Gennimata who assumed a very sensitive sector and became very familiar with it and fought hard for the problems of our defence systems.

Yes, gentlemen. We saved the Hellenic Defence Systems. Remember what newspapers were writing.

We cooperated with Mr. Lambropoulos. We was in this Ministry before, the Army appreciated him and now he does a very important national work with conscientiousness and effectiveness.

The new General Secretary, Mr. Economou, was promoted two days ago and his role is important because he stays here and he will be a part of the political memory in the solution of big problems. But also many close associates of mine whom you knew well during all this period and you saw that, in contrast to what was usually happening here, they stood with respect in front of our national defence system, its leadership and its personnel without interfering with their work, but, instead, they helped them. I am talking about Mr. Kalogeropoulos, Mr. Adamidis and Ambassador Kodellas. About Brigadier General Masouras, I want to tell you that he was a valuable associate, in the past and now as well.

I am saying all this because it is the people behind the work, behind the result, and what I am saying is important.

With a feeling of deep satisfaction and pride today I am saying goodbye to you. I wish personal and family happiness. And be aware that I am not leaving, I am just assuming a new office where our homeland sends me, as I have always done over the 21 years of my political career, responding to the challenges for a better country, a hopeful future, a strong and proud Greece which is duly represented here, within the Hellenic Armed Forces.”