Greek National Defense Minister Nikos Dendias met with his Finnish counterpart Antti Häkkänen in Helsinki on Tuesday.
They discussed the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Europe's progress, and the creation of a defense branch for the EU. Dendias and Häkkänen also discussed Greece's intention to implement the Finnish reserves model, on which he was later scheduled to speak with officers of the Finnish army.
The Greek minister was also scheduled to visit the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE) - under the auspices of EU and NATO - where Greek officers also serve. Additionally, he was expected to meet with defense industry officials in Finland ahead of a discussion in the Greek parliament introducing innovation in the Armed Forces. "We want to create a defense ecosystem and want Finnish companies - some of which have global standing - to participate in this effort as well," Dendias noted.
Following his meeting with Häkkänen, Dendias said that "Greece and Finland share a lot of features. They are both medium-sized countries, but lie next to large neighbors with revisionist ambitions. Both countries also lie at the external borders of the European Union. And they are both countries that believe in International Law, who believe in the International Law of the Sea, having a large number of islands."
Dendias added that his visit to Finland is the first as defense minister and the third as a minister of the Kyriakos Mitsotakis government. As announced earlier, he will also meet with the chairman of the defense committee at the Finnish parliament, Jukka Kopra.