The Greek Minister of National Defence, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, inaugurated the DEFEA 2023 defence and security exhibition in Athens on 9 May, with the exhibition running for three days and concluding on 11 May.
Greek Deputy Minister Nikos Chardalias, as well as the chief of the Greek National Defence General Staff, General Konstantinos Floros, also attended the opening ceremony. Additionally, 32 official governmental and military delegations, 10 of which were headed by defence ministers or deputy defence ministers, were also present as guests of honour at the exhibition.
Following the inauguration ceremony Panagiotopoulos had consecutive meetings with his defence ministerial counterparts that were present at the exhibition. Panagiotopoulos also attended an open discussion under the title ‘Greece at the Centre of Geopolitical Developments’, which was focused on enhancing the capabilities of the Greek armed forces and the furthering of business for the Greek defence industry.
(Photo: DEFEA)
Gen Floros and his staff were in the exhibition early enough to visit the central stand of the National Defence General Staff before making a comprehensive tour around all of the exhibitors.
On the first day of the exhibition a number of defence-industrial co-operation agreements were signed. The most important of these was the acquisition of the leading Greek electronics company Intracom Defense (IDE) by Israel Aerospace Industries. The final agreement was signed by the company’s president, Sokratis Kokkalis, at the company’s exhibition stand at DEFEA.
In addition, activation of a contract between Greek company EODH (Engineering-Office-Deisenroth Hellas) and Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann was signed, which relates to the manufacture of armour for the Leopard tanks of the Norwegian Army.
During the second day of DEFEA a comprehensive co-operation agreement was signed between German company Autoflug and the group of Greek and German companies Althom GmbH and Althom Engineering EPE. This long-term co-operation is for the design and development of safety seats as well as the creation of technical documentation. This co-operation agreement marks the next step in a co-operation deal between the contracting partners that has existed since 2019.
