His goal is to aim for “national consensus or at least national agreement and understanding on basic choices,” newly appointed Greek National Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said in Parliament during a plenary discussion on the new government’s policy program on Saturday.
Dendias noted that returning to the practice of placing party interests above national interest would not be the right choice, and national issues should not be filtered through populism and lead to fighting between parties.
Referring to Turkiye, the defense minister underlined that “Greece continues to extend an olive branch, aiming at the peaceful coexistence of the two peoples and hopes for improvements in relations, especially after the window of opportunity that opened following the disastrous earthquake” in the neighboring country.
Among the plans he noted for the ministry in the second term of New Democracy in power, Dendias noted the upgrade of civil national defense and the upgrade of the Greek defense industry so that it may contribute to the Greek economy’s development. The latter will require close collaboration with the Finance Ministry, in order to face chronic ills in the sector. He also mentioned the use of unexploited and huge property assets of the Armed Forces in order to improve housing for staff throughout Greece and remote areas, particularly on islands where housing prices are prohibitive to members of the Armed Forces.
