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Nikos Dendias and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar talk in front of the flags of Greece and India

Asia-Pacific

Greece-India: Dendias meets the Indian ambassador on strategic defence cooperation, while Gkikas discusses shipping and shipbuilding in New Delhi

Defence Minister Nikos Dendias met India’s ambassador Ravi Shankar on October 10 to discuss deepening strategic defence cooperation, two days after Deputy Minister Stefanos Gkikas held talks in New Delhi on maritime cooperation, coastal security and shipbuilding.

GEOPOLITIKI GEOPOLITIKINewsroom
2 min read

Archive photo: Nikos Dendias, then Greece’s foreign minister, with his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar in New York, September 22, 2022. Photo: Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped to 16:9 and converted to WebP.

Greece’s Minister of National Defence, Nikos Dendias, held an introductory meeting on Saturday, October 10, at the Ministry of National Defence with India’s ambassador to Athens, Ravi Shankar. The meeting came two days after Deputy Minister of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy Stefanos Gkikas held talks in New Delhi on the two countries’ naval and defence cooperation.

What Dendias and Shankar discussed

According to Mr Dendias’s post on X, as rendered in English by the Embassy of India in Greece and carried by the news agency IANS, the two sides discussed “the security challenges in the wider region, the great potential for further deepening our strategic defence cooperation, and the strong bonds of friendship between Greece and India.”

Gkikas in New Delhi

On Thursday, October 8, Mr Gkikas met in New Delhi with India’s Defence Secretary, Rajesh Kumar Singh. According to India’s Ministry of Defence, the two sides discussed India-Greece defence and strategic cooperation with an emphasis on maritime cooperation, coastal security and shipbuilding. “As two prominent maritime nations, India and Greece have common interest and stakes in the maritime sector including the need to ensure safety and security of seafarers,” the Indian ministry said.

The deputy minister was on an official visit to India to attend Sagarmanthan, the Great Oceans Dialogue 2026, organised by India’s Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, which brings together governments and shipping companies. Before the trip he had met Ambassador Shankar in Athens, on October 1, and said that Greece remained committed to strengthening maritime cooperation with India.

Greek-Indian defence cooperation has taken on an operational character in recent years. India is also at the centre of the IMEC economic corridor (India-Middle East-Europe), in which Greece seeks to be the gateway to Europe. Turkey has promoted an alternative corridor through Syria and its own territory, which makes the close relationship between Athens and New Delhi all the more important for Greek interests in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Eastern Mediterranean Greece India Nikos Dendias Shipbuilding

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