Panayotopoulos at the Delphi Forum: Putin miscalculated in Ukraine

By Stelios Kandias

“Greece wants open channels of communication with Turkey, and is in the mood for a debate subject to respect for our sovereign rights,” he said. the Minister of Defense Nikos Panagiotopoulos at the 7th Delphi Economic Forum.

Asked by SKAI journalist Stavros Ioannidis, the Minister of Defense noted that of course There are lessons from the war in Ukraine on many levels. For NATO, it brought a redefinition of its role, as far as the EU was concerned, it brought a necessary awakening. “This time the decisions were immediate, instantaneous. The question is whether this tight attitude will be maintained, or whether there will be differences of opinion regarding sanctions. These were not calculated by Putin as he did not calculate 43 days of war, but 3 days “He did not take into account the attitude of the West and the resistance of the Ukrainians. The predisposition to fight has reached the absolute.” underlined.

On the occasion of the incident in Parliament, he wondered how many Azov extremists there are, as some say. “How many are there? A few tens of thousands at most.”

Nikos Panagiotopoulos estimated that the Russia will be completely isolated because of Putin. “We can learn from the war on the ground. It was a bit of a surprise that the Ukrainians strongly resisted the Russian war machine,” he said..

According to Mr. Panagiotopoulos, we did well to strengthen the deterrent power of the country as a whole. Especially now that the relaxation of fiscal rules on defense spending is being discussed in Europe. There is dynamics due to the Ukrainian in the EU. As pointed out by the Minister of Defense, and Germany is still being re-equipped with a € 100 billion program.

For European text of the compass strategy He emphasized that the decision was not a signal of a formal antitrust inquiry into Russia, but said that there was a clear reference to individual actions in the region that posed a potential threat.

Mr. Panagiotopoulos added for him European army that Europe can take complementary steps towards NATO in areas such as the Sahel.

In defense industry noted, there is a glorious field for European synergies that will lead to complex defense equipment such as corvettes.

The eastern wing, especially the southeastern wing of NATO, is gaining geopolitical importance. It may be an opportunity for us. However, what is happening in the north should concern us in the direction of normalizing relations, but with an international order based on rules, the Minister of Defense noted.

This is not the time for “yes but” he said of her Greek armaments assistance to Ukraineadding that he regretted that there was no unanimity between the parties on this issue.

We are in the mood for a debate without compromising our sovereign rights, and we expect the other side to do the same. The channels must be left open he said.

“Akar misinterpreted my statements in a sly and oriental way” clarified yet Nikos Panagiotopoulos commenting on the statement of the bond for a discussion of the two about co-exploitation of the Aegean. We talked about the wealth of the Aegean, but not about hydrocarbon deposits. There was talk in the direction of reducing the tensions we experienced last summer and from this calm summer to benefit the tourism economy for both countries, he clarified.

For armaments Among other things, the Minister of Defense clarified that it was necessary to quickly bring to Parliament the modernization of the F-16 Block 50 but also smaller armament programs.

Concerning the state-of-the-art F-35 fighters He said that we will be concerned in the future, but the interest was expressed to the Americans.

For strengthening the personnel of the armed forces clarified that it must reduce the average age. We have increased the numbers of admissions to military schools in this context he said.

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