Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias called on the European Union, to commit the resources needed to address the security challenges emanating from its southern flank, speaking as he arrived for the Council of EU Defense Ministers, on Monday, September 28.
Dendias pointed to developments in the Middle East and to crises that, he said, bear directly on European security. He also highlighted Greece’s participation in the EU naval operations Irini and Aspides.
“Today at the Council, in addition to the usual topic of Ukraine, we will also discuss the challenges the EU, our European family, faces from the South,” the defense minister said. He noted that the discussion would focus on the crises in the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb, as well as the broader situation in the Middle East.
Dendias stressed that Greece has long sought to draw European attention to the challenges arising from the EU’s southern neighborhood. “Greece, for its part, has consistently done everything it can to make the EU aware of the problems we also face from the south,” he said. He added that the country has for years taken part in Operation Irini as well as Operation Aspides, underscoring its contribution to European efforts to safeguard security in the region.
“It is therefore time for the EU to fully grasp that the challenges come not only from the North but also from the South,” he said. The minister emphasized that European security policy must respond to the full range of challenges facing the Union.
The EU, he concluded, must “provide the necessary resources so that the 360-degree policy we have been proclaiming for so many years can finally be put into practice.”
