The Minister of National Defense, Mr. Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, met today, February 24, 2023, with the Minister of Defense of the French Republic, Mr. Sebastien Lecornu, as part of his official visit to Greece.

The two Ministers participated in the bilateral talks that took place in the “Ioannis Kapodistrias” Conference Room on matters related to the further strengthening of bilateral cooperation in the defense sector. In addition, issues of regional cooperation in the Balkans, security and stability challenges in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region, as well as developments in Ukraine were discussed.

Also participating in the talks were the Vice-Chief of the General Staff Vice-Admiral Frangiskos Leloudas PN, as a representative of the Chief of General Staff, the Chief of General Staff Vice-General Angelos Houdeloudis, the Chief of General Staff Vice-Admiral Ioannis Drymouses PN and the Deputy Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General (I) Antonios Panidis, as a representative of A/General Staff, the Ambassador of the French Republic in Athens Patrick Maisonnave, as well as multi-member delegations from both sides.

After the talks and the private meeting of the two Ministers, statements to the Military Editors in the Press Room of the Ministry of National Defense followed:

NIKOLAOS PANAGIOTOPOULOS: “Mr. Minister, dear Sebastian, it is a special honor and pleasure to welcome you today to Athens and to the Ministry of National Defense.

Your visit today confirms the strong and timeless friendship of our countries and peoples, as well as our strategic relationship both bilaterally and at the level of the European Union and NATO.

We share the same fundamental principles and values, as well as a common vision for peace, security, stability and prosperity, both in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.

The signing of the Bilateral Agreement on Strategic Partnership and Cooperation in the Defense and Security Sector in September 2021, was a new milestone in our bilateral relations, as well as in the cooperation between the Armed Forces of Greece and France. Tangible proof of this relationship is the acquisition of the three state-of-the-art “Belh@rra” frigates, which is in progress, as well as that of the 24 “Rafale” aircraft, twelve of which are already operating from the Tanagra Air Base, which we will visit today as well.

I would also like to express our satisfaction with the continued presence of French Naval Forces in the Eastern Mediterranean. They certainly contribute to the stability and security of the wider region. Last week, the Aircraft Carrier “Charles de Gaulle”, which operates in the Eastern Mediterranean region, sailed to Souda and participated in cooperation with the Air Force and the Navy, while the frigate “Provence” recently sailed to the port of Heraklion as part of a training exercise. sail.

Minister Lekorny and I also discussed the security situation in the Eastern Mediterranean. I would like to take this opportunity to express our support to the Turkish people for the devastating earthquake of February 6 and also to emphasize Greece’s practical assistance from the very beginning, as it should have been. We are always in favor of good neighborly relations and welcome the apparent de-escalation of tension in the region. I certainly hope that this will be maintained in the future and that it will be the beginning of a new era in the relations between the two countries, as well as the beginning of a meaningful dialogue based of course on International Law.

The Minister and I also discussed the developments in Ukraine. Today marks one year since the Russian invasion, so we reiterated our will to continue to support Ukraine in every possible way for as long as necessary. Unfortunately, there is still no prospect of an end to the conflicts and the suffering of the Ukrainian people, who are fighting with self-sacrifice and self-denial. Our support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine has been and remains unwavering.

In conclusion, Greece has always supported initiatives to promote stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean and the wider region.

We have built strong alliances with friendly countries based on the rules of International Law and a typical example is the quadrilateral of Greece, France, Italy and Cyprus, which we agreed to enrich during our discussions today and with new activities.

I am extremely pleased that our discussion was very substantive regarding the security threats and challenges that exist in our region and how through joint efforts, we will be able to address them effectively.

Mr. Minister, dear Sebastian, I would also like to thank you for your visit and wish you every success in your work. And I also wish that our bilateral relationship, this strategic partnership, especially in the field of Defense, will be enriched and strengthened more and more.

Thank you very much”.

SEBASTIAN LEKORNY: “Thank you, Mr. Minister, thank you, dear Nikos, for this welcome.

I said it earlier in our discussions, the relations between Athens and Paris are systematic, rich and close. They are friendly and based on the great trust between Prime Minister Mr. Mitsotakis, whom I had the honor of meeting yesterday, and the President of the French Republic, Mr. Emmanuel Macron.

Such is the relationship between us, as you are the first Minister of Defense to express his friendship and appreciation to me when I was posted just nine months ago. Nine months and we have greatly increased our meetings. Officially it’s the fourth or fifth, if we don’t also count the numerous direct conversations we have on a weekly basis, by phone, whatsapp, obviously and our one-on-one meetings at the various ministerial meetings in NATO and the European Union.

You are indeed the counterpart with whom I maintain the closest relations, one of the counterparts with whom I have the most contacts, and there is a strong brotherly relationship between Greece and France. We share the Mediterranean, we share History, we share Culture but we also have common security issues with stakes that never cease to concern us.

This bilateral meeting of ours today, therefore, allowed us to make an assessment of the various issues of our cooperation, cooperation obviously in operational matters, exercises or joint trainings for which the Prime Minister Mr. Mitsotakis and the President Mr. Emmanuel Macron gave us instructions, as well as our Joint Chiefs of Staff to increase the strength, number and quality of the exercises to be conducted in this area of ​​the Mediterranean in the coming weeks and months.

We are not starting from scratch. There is already a significant track record on this issue but it is clear that we need to move forward. You mentioned the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier and of course the frigates and the naval forces, the Rafale aircraft, our submarines, including nuclear powered submarines, nuclear attack submarines.

We clearly this morning clarified the methodology that will enable our Heads of Government and State to strengthen our joint training and joint operations in the future.

The second issue we referred to is the issue of equipment and the possibilities of cooperation between us. I welcomed you to Lorient to monitor the progress of our frigate program, for which we are obviously putting pressure on our industrial partner, the “Naval Group”, to meet the deadlines because you obviously need these ships. Obviously we will come back to the Rafale in a few minutes during the visit to the Air Base, but let me say how proud the French people are of this partnership which is not just commercial. We want this cooperation to be based on the security stakes, to be based on a much closer partnership and I say this before our Ambassador, whom I applaud because with his working group, the Defense Attaché and the Armaments Attaché, for the very important work carried out in recent months on this issue. We wish this industrial relationship to become more win-win in a European dimension in a cooperation dimension for which we asked our industries to show us their ingenuity for the time to come. These are capabilities that are exactly needed to make this partnership a win-win for everyone. I believe this is the spirit we want to achieve among Europeans.

Third topic of discussion was obviously the wider security situation, in Europe and the Mediterranean, Ukraine obviously and the issue of the military assistance we provide to it. In our democracies there are sometimes strange confrontations. There are a number of people who argue that it is not our war and we should stop supporting Ukraine because the aid we give prolongs the war. I believe that we must find this naivety of some, this spirit of defeatism, highly paradoxical, as we see that it is clearly a matter of collective security. We cannot want respect for International Law, borders, when it suits us and ignore that International Law and the borders of Ukraine must be respected. They must be preserved and I really welcome the United Nations General Assembly Resolution which shows how committed the international community is to this.

Military aid is therefore our responsibility, as Ministers of Defence, to continue by enhancing this military aid to our Ukrainian friends. So we were able to discuss our views on our important issues and I would like to move forward on the subject of our industry and our collective capabilities, building what the President of the French Republic calls a “war economy”. That is, to ask our industries to create stocks, to intensify production, to ensure the entire supply chain. This is particularly true of gunpowder, a subject on which I made announcements in Paris this week and on which I also presented this thought to our partners, as we now have this relationship of familiarity and closeness, as we have with Athens and the Greek leadership with which we wanted to share this topic as well.

The agenda will continue throughout 2023. We scheduled a meeting date with the Minister of National Defense to take a fresh look at the developments in the region, we exchanged views on our Egyptian friends and partners, the security situation in Libya and Africa.

Since I am here, in Athens, a great European capital and a great cradle of our culture, I want to say that the war in Ukraine should not overshadow the rest of our security problems, especially those concerning the South, Senegal, Ivory Coast, the countries of the Sahel, where terrorism still exists. Paris and Athens Athens and Paris must continue to strengthen their relationship in support of a security agenda. In any case, as a friend of Greece, I would like to personally express my appreciation for what you are achieving here and to state how important a role Greece plays as a security provider for all European states and, more generally, for all the states of the Mediterranean arc.

Mr. Minister, thank you for the welcome.”

After the completion of the statements, the Minister of National Defense and their French counterpart, accompanied by the delegations of both sides, went to the 114th Fighter Wing. At the facilities of the 332 All Weather Squadron, Mr. Panagiotopoulos and Lecorny were informed about the history, mission, training and activities of the unit that is the headquarters of the “Rafale”. They were then briefed aboard a two-seat fighter on its operational capabilities and spoke with airmen and engineers serving in the 114th AM.