ENGLISH SECTION
28/07/2025 | 18:03
PM Mitsotakis: ‘We are investing in national defence because we are investing in the security, stability, and future of our country’
“The defence and security of our country is a national matter. For this reason, our government continues to strengthen the deterrent power and operational capability of the Armed Forces with planning, seriousness, and strategic responsibility,” noted Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a post on Monday regarding Greece’s inclusion in the EU’s SAFE mechanism.
“We are making full use of the available European support tools – tools we played a leading role in shaping. Just like in the activation of the national escape clause for strengthening defence, which secures for us fiscal space that will be fully utilised for the implementation of the Long-Term Defence Armaments Programme,” he emphasised.
He added that “our homeland, within the framework of the ReARM Europe programme, will participate in the EU’s new financial mechanism SAFE. Tomorrow, we will officially submit our proposal for inclusion in the SAFE mechanism, seeking low-interest loans of at least 1.2 billion euros to strengthen our national defence and the Greek defence industry.
“Our inclusion in SAFE reinforces an already dynamic plan within the framework of the Long-Term Defence Armaments Programme (LTDP), which had already been set at 28.8 billion euros and is now increasing to 30 billion euros for the period 2025-2036. The expansion of the armaments programme strengthens the Greek defence and technology industry, creates significant opportunities for investment, productive partnerships, and new jobs, increases domestic added value, and leads to greater national autonomy.”
The Prime Minister then emphasised that “Greece actively participates in shaping European defence and security policy.
“This is only the beginning. My position remains that Europe must make a leap – more ambitious and faster than the erosion it faces. And that it must create a European Investment Fund for critical strategic public-interest projects, such as the development of a unified European missile defence shield.”
“We are investing in national defence because we are investing in the security, stability, and future of our country and in a strategically autonomous and geopolitically mature Europe,” concluded Mitsotakis in his post.
Source: ΑΝΑ – ΜPA
