The Minister of National Defense Mr. Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos declared today, Wednesday, December 14, 2022, the start of the work of the 1st Naval Power Conference, which is organized by the General Staff of the Navy and takes place at the Eugenides Foundation.

Greetings were addressed by the Deputy Minister of Shipping & Island Policy, responsible for ship matters, Mr. Konstantinos Katsafados, the Chief GEETHA General Konstantinos Floros, the Chief General Vice-Admiral Stylianos Petrakis PN, the Chief of the LS-EL.AKT. Vice Admiral L.S. George Alexandrakis.

Members of Parliament, Armed Forces officials, retired officers and former Ministers and representatives of Merchant Shipping bodies were present.

During his speech, the Minister pointed out:

“Ladies and gentlemen,

I certainly do not feel that I am in a position to particularly enlighten this select and specialized public about naval power, but you will allow me to say a few words and of course to express my joy that I am here today in the grounds of the Eugenide Foundation with the opportunity of organizing the 1st Naval Power Conference.

So there was a US Navy Officer, Alfred Thayer Mahan, the father of the US Naval Academy, a geostrategist and historian, and a Navy man of course, a Sailor himself, who said that “the naval power is the military power of a State against the sea, which is expressed through its Navy” and World History has proven that Sea Power is the key to sovereignty, whether at the global, or at the regional and local level.

The British Empire, Spain, the Netherlands and the USA, of course, are typical examples. “Rule Britannia, rule the waves”, that is, Britain exercised authority over the waves, the poet wrote in the 18th century, at the height of Great Britain’s sea power, and note the words. He did not say he exercised power over the territory or over the imperial possessions or the colonies, etc. Great Britain exercised power over the waves, wrote Thomson at the time, and of course obviously according to this reasoning sea power absolutely implies geopolitical power.

I think the most extreme example of projecting geopolitical power through sea power today is the aircraft carrier. The aircraft carrier is not identified as a platform on which a power like China can conduct exercises or operations of an aeronautical nature. It is basically defined as a means of projecting power, the aircraft carrier is called “projection of power”. Of course, the countries that have it are considered capable of projecting power in a wider geopolitical environment through aircraft carriers.

Of course, we have our own aircraft carriers in Greece. They are of course static but also unsinkable and in this way they are able to project our own domestic power at least in the wider marine environment, certainly in the Aegean but also more widely in the Eastern Mediterranean. And of course, the great naval battles of History, ladies and gentlemen, you know well, were events that marked the further course of things at the level of power relationships, either with the strengthening of a great power (the one that won – defeated in the great naval battle), or with the retreat (and certainly at the geopolitical level) of another, the one that was defeated.

Salamis marked the end of Persian subterfuge in Antiquity and perhaps the dawn of Athenian dominance at sea.

Nafpaktos marked the end of the Ottoman Empire’s ambition to dominate the entire Mediterranean.

Navarino marked the end of the Turkish-Egyptian fleet’s intrusion in Greece and the beginning of the conditions for the declaration of the Independence of the Greek State when the Revolution was facing difficulties. We know this well.

Later in World War II, Midway marked the end of the Japanese push for dominance in the Pacific, and the course has since been reversed in favor of the great Superpower at sea and in the Pacific, the US. That naval battle essentially tipped the scales in favor of one power and against the other. So naval power means absolutely and directly the projection of geopolitical power.

For the Greeks, of course, naval power is also a key component of our history and seamanship engraved in our DNA from the campaign, in essence a naval campaign, of the Trojan War in the 12th BC. century until the presence and operations of the Navy in the two World Wars. The Chiefs certainly mentioned all of this throughout our History from the Classical Times to the World Wars.

I would like to make a special mention regarding the sovereignty of the Navy, its decisive contribution, to the consolidation of sovereignty in the Aegean and the territorial expansion of the country. My hometown, Kavala, was liberated by a very clever trick of the Navy, the sense of naval power in the enemy. They lit fires in many boats, of course after the invention and strategy of the Navy Officers who were operating openly at the time of Kavala, there in the Northern Aegean. The Bulgarians thought that a large naval force was facing them and that they were about to land in the morning hours, they fled without firing a shot and only a handful of Navy Officers and Sailors had to march into the city and liberate Kavala without a shooting. Because the enemy felt that the naval power of Greece was decisive and there was no reason to resist.

Coming to the present day, the daily struggle and dealing with Turkish provocation in the Aegean highlights once again the importance of naval power and the deterrent capability of the Armed Forces as a whole. At the Ministry of National Defense, aware of the developments and fluidity in the international geopolitical scene, but also the security challenges in our wider region and especially in the Southeast Mediterranean, we are proceeding at an intensive pace in the diverse strengthening, development and modernization of the Navy. You know them.

I believe that the Greek Navy is now moving at a fast pace, “with a leap of faith” if you will, into the new era and is playing a leading role in increasing Greece’s naval power both with the acquisition of the state-of-the-art frigates FDI, other and other means, the new – as mentioned by the Chief – anti-submarine warfare helicopters MH-60 ROMEO, the imminent selection (we are very close to this point) of the new corvettes and others, in order to meet the operational requirements of the Navy Navy. Of course, among the others I also include the modernization of the four MEKO-type frigates.

And of course they are already expanding based on the planning we did at the Ministry based on the recommendations with the Chief’s plan, the recommendations of the Chiefs of General Staff and the naval infrastructure in the country, both at the level of the Navy (Souda) and more broadly (Alexandroupoli). , so that the entire maritime territory enjoys upgraded infrastructure, which directly implies a strengthening of the country’s strategic, geopolitical footprint in the wider region.

Finally, special mention must be made of the Greek Merchant Shipping. This makes Greece a maritime superpower at the level of international maritime trade. The Greek owner commercial fleet remains first worldwide and is a powerful factor that strengthens foreign policy and strengthens the role of Greece in the international environment. It is also a lever for projecting soft power, of course, but also soft power, you know very well that it is national power.

So our centuries-long naval history demonstrates the decisive contribution of naval power to the historical development of the Greeks. It is therefore the duty of all of us to contribute in any way to the preservation and increase of this power.

In closing, let me express my warmest congratulations to all the contributors who created this initiative. With the positions of the distinguished speakers and the analyzes of the individual issues, the importance of sea power as a factor of national power will certainly be highlighted, but naval power is also a valuable part of our collective consciousness – allow me to believe this – of the soul of Greece . I look forward to the fruitful conclusions of the conference. I am sure it will be a complete success and should become an institution from now on.

Congratulations to all, and after joy, allow me to take this step to declare the opening of the 1st Naval Power Conference. Thank you for your attention”.