Dendias and Palmas meet in Thessaloniki on the day of the 28 October parade

Greek Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias met the Defence Minister of the Republic of Cyprus, Vasilis Palmas, in Thessaloniki on Wednesday, October 28, the day of the national anniversary. Dendias announced the meeting himself in a post on X shortly after 10:15 Greek time.

According to Dendias, the two ministers exchanged views on the latest international developments in security issues and examined defence cooperation between Greece and Cyprus. He added that he was pleased to meet his Cypriot counterpart. The post carried three photographs: in one the two men stand in front of flags, in the others they talk seated in armchairs indoors.

Recent developments around Cyprus

The Cypriot minister was in Thessaloniki on the day the Armed Forces marched down Megalou Alexandrou Avenue, in a parade that showed the new Achilles Shield air defence and the Greek-designed unmanned systems. Cypriot National Guard units also took part.

Several developments concerning Cyprus came in the last few days. The House of Representatives unanimously condemned the illegal Turkish–Libyan memorandum in a resolution, and Cyprus signed an agreement with Israel for a new offshore patrol vessel for the National Guard.

At the same time Greece and Cyprus, together with the EU, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE, co-signed at the United Nations a joint statement describing the Turkish–Libyan memorandum as “null and void”.

The anniversary message and “Agenda 2030”

In his message for the anniversary on Tuesday, October 27, Dendias had said that this year’s Thessaloniki parade would highlight the progress in the transformation of the Armed Forces. The public, he wrote, would see the transition to the new era, the first samples of which were shown last year, and the course continues this year within “Agenda 2030”, with the aim of strengthening deterrence and making use of new technologies and of the country’s defence ecosystem. He also expressed his pride and gratitude to the women and men of the Armed Forces and to the ministry’s civilian staff.

On Wednesday morning he returned with a new post, calling October 28 a day of remembrance and honour for those who defended freedom. “86 years later, the ‘NO’ remains a symbol of the determination of the Greek people to restate it against every threat to the national sovereignty and the sovereign rights of our Homeland,” the defence minister wrote on X.