Greece needs to further strengthen its defense capabilities and carry out a fundamental overhaul of the institutional framework governing its armed forces, Defense Minister Nikos Dendias told a parliamentary committee while presenting a draft bill from the Ministry of National Defense.

“Greece is not Luxembourg,” Dendias said, stressing that the country does not operate in a neutral geopolitical environment. Referring to Turkey’s casus belli declaration and its “Blue Homeland” doctrine, he said Greece faces a continuous and concrete security threat.

Under these conditions, Dendias said, any discussion of complacency or of maintaining an unsustainable military posture would be “unthinkable”, arguing that the strategic reality requires constant readiness and structural reform of the armed forces.