Greece, which hosts the headquarters of the European operation “Aspides” to protect commercial ships from Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, wants to play a central role in the security of the 27 EU member states, said, among other things, the Minister of National Defense, Nikos Dendias, speaking to the Reuters agency.

“We must,” he stressed, “be able to defend ourselves” while adding that the EU can achieve this in cooperation with NATO and other allied countries.

“What we are trying to do is to create a domestic defense industry in Greece and Europe that will serve the needs of the EU,” he pointed out.

As reported by Reuters, the EU mission in the Red Sea, called “Shields”, announced last month, is aimed at protecting merchant ships from attacks by the Iran-friendly Houthis, who in doing so claim to be supporting the Palestinians in their conflict with Israel.

In the telegram of the Reuters agency, it is also mentioned that our country is at the crossroads between Europe, Africa and Asia, while it has the largest merchant fleet in the world and sees attacks on its ships increasing off the coast of Yemen. It is also emphasized that the traffic in the port of Piraeus is down 40%.

At the same time, it is reported that the Greek frigate Hydra left last week for the Red Sea with Greece taking over the administration of the operation with its headquarters located in Larissa.

“It is important that we succeed,” said Mr. Dendias. “You can’t be the crossroads if the roads don’t work or don’t exist. For Greece this is a huge threat directly and indirectly” he added.

“To have a close coordination and as much as possible a common approach with the other fleets is appropriate and important” said the Minister of National Defense.

Mr. Dendias did not fail to mention that the EU, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, wants to strengthen its role collectively as a Union instead of each of the 27 countries following their own defense policy.

In particular, for Greece, as a member of NATO, Mr. Dendias pointed out that he wants to reorganize its Armed Forces, revive its defense industry and the activities of its shipyards, as it recovers from the economic crisis of the previous decade.

In this context, continued the Minister of National Defenseour country is pursuing the production of air and sea drones, anti-drone systems and its participation in the design and construction of the new generation US Constellation class frigates in Greek shipyards.

“This is a huge challenge”, he emphasized and added: “We are a proud maritime nation and it is the first time in our history that we will be able to jointly design a platform as important as Constellation”.

He clarified, however, that in order to agree on the determination of the specific characteristics of the ships, a period of approximately two years will be required, while he added that the Greek shipyards will be able to maintain ships of a similar class from other countries.