The Minister of National Defense Mr. Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos attended yesterday, Monday, November 21, 2022, at the celebratory event organized by GEETHA at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center for Armed Forces Day.

Mr. Panagiotopoulos delivered the following speech:

“Ladies and gentlemen.

I am certainly very pleased and honored to be here with you tonight to celebrate Armed Forces Day.

So today we pay tribute to the timeless contribution of the Armed Forces to ensure peace, freedom and democracy. Ensuring the territorial integrity and national independence of the Motherlands, so that the country can effectively face all its modern security challenges for the defense with virtue and courage of the timeless values ​​of Hellenism.

You know these goods are not given. They are conquests won through national struggles in which the Armed Forces have written pages of brilliant glory. It is the sacred legacy of a mission that requires unceasing vigilance as well as a strong deterrent capability. The geopolitical environment is complicated in this period.

The security challenges are also escalating but the Armed Forces in this environment under these conditions manage to adequately meet the national need for security and peace by meeting every challenge effectively from wherever it may have come from.i and thus contribute catalytically to safeguarding national interests as well as stability in our region.

Being aware of the above, the Government and the Ministry of National Defense set from the beginning as a strategic goal the armoring of our Homeland. Our country is thus shielded defensively and deterrently in a period when revisionist and destabilizing attitudes endanger and undermine the Principles of International Law, good neighborly relations and peace and stability in our wider region.

The defense of the Motherland is carried out through interventions in three directions: In weapon systems, in Defense Diplomacy and in human res. On the basis of an organized overall plan prioritized to the needs with seriousness, professionalism, transparency and efficiency.

We constantly take care of the modernization of our weapon systems by supplying new state-of-the-art ones as well as the parallel upgrade of the existing ones.

We work methodically in the direction of Defense Diplomacy by upgrading relations and expanding Greece’s alliances. The priority was and is the strengthening and upgrading of our homeland’s alliances with more and stronger allies, as important agreements have been signed with countries with whom we largely share the same views on security and stability in our region.

And of course, the procurement of new weapons systems as well as the defense agreements cannot by themselves guarantee the combat effectiveness of the Armed Forces without the third and most important direction.

Human res: A central component of our policy is the undertaking of actions that contribute to the improvement of the daily life of the staff. At the same time, we seek the further development of their abilities, working methodically in the field of upgrading both their Military and Academic Education. Whatever money we spend on new media would be useless if it were not for the high professionalism and morale of the Armed Forces personnel.

I think an example in this direction is the creation of the International Aviation Training Center in Kalamata, a pioneering project which is, among other things, a strategic intervention for the future of Air Force personnel. Therefore, in order to improve the daily life of the Armed Forces personnel with the aim of the uninterrupted and efficient execution of the mission, we are settling a series of permanent requests such as the salary development of Long-Term Volunteers and Short-Term Reassignment Soldiers, the extension of the five-year combat period and the night compensation, while the prospect of additional pay for the crews of warships on mission is also under implementation.

I must add that the Bill for the care of the staff has just received the approval of the Ministry of Finance, because the approval of the Ministry of Finance is always needed for something that has a budgetary footprint and in the coming days it will be forwarded to the public consultation.

I therefore declare that I am proud to lead the Ministry of National Defense together with the Political Leadership, Deputy Minister, Secretary General and certainly together with the Military Leadership, Chief of General Staff, Chiefs of General Staff.

I congratulate the personnel of the Armed Forces for the excellent performance of their duties, for their high morale, for their readiness, fulfilling their mission with zeal and professionalism gives strength to all of us to meet the challenges of the times making the Armed Forces as the now an impenetrable pillar of national power. The spirit, patriotism and sense of duty of the Greek Soldier, the Greek Officer and NCO, the men and women, who serve on land, sea and air are the strongest guarantees, more powerful and than the most expensive equipment program, for the worthy of battle of the Armed Forces.

Excellency Madam President of the Republic, Mr. Prime Minister, your presence here today practically proves your interest in the Armed Forces of the country, after all, it is your plan and your order that we are asked to carry out, Mr. Prime Minister.

So today Greece celebrates the Armed Forces as well as the Virgin Mary. The Ministry of National Defense as let me say this, the Armed Forces we celebrate every day we do something for them.

Every day that the contracting of an armaments program progresses, every day that a small or large armaments program is voted on by the relevant committee of the Parliament. Every day we receive a vehicle for our air force that lands a “Rafale” in Tanagra. Each day one is delivered Viper at the ODA facilities, every day we take delivery of a surface ship or get the good news of another being built.

And I would like to assure you that the Armed Forces are and remain strong, ready for war, capable of fighting, sending a strong deterrent signal in every direction. The Armed Forces are getting stronger day by day they are becoming more and more deterrent and if some people are unhappy about it wherever they come from, I tell you they will continue to be unhappy because the Armed Forces will continue to be strengthened.

So with these Armed Forces and also with this decisive leadership, I believe that we have nothing and no one to fear as a country, as a people, as a nation and as a homeland.

We have been hard hit, but in the hard times we are strong, and in the even harder times we are even stronger.

So Happy Birthday to the Armed Forces, thanks to the Super-Fighting General to always cover all the executives.

Happy birthday to everyone, thank you for your presence.”