Ο Α/ΓΕΕΘΑ Μιχαήλ Κωσταράκος έδωσε συνέντευξη σε εφημερίδα της Ρουμανίας όπου βρέθηκε για επίσημη επίσκεψη. 
Ο Α/ΓΕΕΘΑ
Αναφέρθηκε στο γεγονός πως η Ελλάδα ανήκει πλέον σε ένα κλειστό γκρουπ 4 χωρών του Νάτο που δαπανούν πάνω από το 2% του ΑΕΠ της χώρας για αμυντικές δαπάνες, το οποίο επετεύχθη πετυχαίνοντας περισσότερα με λιγότερους πόρους και αξιοποιώντας καλύτερα τα κονδύλια.
Ερωτώμενος για την ατζέντα που θα συζητηθεί στο επόμενο συνέδριο στην Ουαλία, σχετικά με την αμυντική επάρκεια και τον επαναπροσδιορισμό των απαιτούμενων επενδύσεων , ώστε η Νατοϊκή Συμμαχία να μπορεί να ανταποκριθεί σε όλες τις προκλήσεις, αναφέρθηκε στο γεγονός πως το ΝΑΤΟ εδώ και 65 χρόνια αποτελεί το οχυρό της σταθερότητας σε ένα μεταβαλλόμενο και απρόβλεπτο κόσμο.
Δεδομένου των αλλαγών, όπως και η εμφάνιση νέων απειλών αποτελεί επιτακτική ανάγκη η αντιμετώπιση των πολλαπλών προκλήσεων που δύναται να εμφανιστούν, όλοι μας πρέπει να διασφαλίσουμε ότι διαθέτουμε τον εξοπλισμό, τα σχέδια και την κατάλληλη εκπαίδευση για να αντιμετωπίσουμε τους κινδύνους που μπορεί να προκύψουν , η κάθε χώρα ξεχωριστά αλλά και σε συνεργασία με τους συμμάχους μας , για αυτό πρέπει να προχωρήσουμε στις απαραίτητες ενέργειες και δεσμεύσεις.
Ο Α/ΓΕΕΘΑ δήλωσε προβληματισμό για τα γεγονότα που διαδραματίζονται στην Ανατολική Ευρώπη και συγκεκριμένα στην Ουκρανία, τονίζοντας το γεγονός πως η περιοχή της Μαύρης Θάλασσας αποτελεί από την αρχαιότητα σημείο γεωστρατηγικής σημασίας για την Ελλάδα.
Επιπλέον τόνισε τη πλήρη υποστήριξη του στο σχέδιο Smart Defence που αναπτύχθηκε από το ΝΑΤΟ και στο “Pooling and Sharing ” σε Ευρωπαϊκό επίπεδο όπως και στις ευκαιρίες που παρουσιαστούν στην Ελλάδα για πολυεθνική συνεργασία με τα άλλα κράτη-μέλη.
Τελειώνοντας αναφέρθηκε στην πρόσφατη συνάντηση του υπουργού Εξωτερικών Δ.Αβραμόπουλου με την ομόλογο του Mircea Dusa και στην απόφασή τους να προεκτείνουν και αναβαθμίσουν την υπάρχουσα συνεργασία των δύο χωρών, με αποτέλεσμα το σύμφωνο που είχε υπογραφεί στην Αθήνα στις 6 Μάιου 2010 να παραμείνει σε ισχύ, όπως και τη σύσταση κοινής επιτροπής Ρουμάνων και Ελλήνων με σκοπό την επεξεργασία ενός προγράμματος βασισμένο στο προαναφερθέν Σύμφωνο.
Όλη η συνέντευξη του Α/ΓΕΕΘΑ εδώ
INTERVIEW Hellenic National Defence General Staff Chief: Defence budget places us in a 4-NATO states’ club
Greece is “very preoccupied” with the NATO flank in Eastern and South Europe, General Mikhail Kostarakos, the Hellenic National Defence General Staff’s (HNDGS) Chief said in an interview with AGERPRES.
Photo credit: nato.int
“The political volatility and the stability level’s degradation we are facing in the countries of this region bring threats to the security, affecting not only the neighbouring countries,” the Greek official adds.
General Kostarakos says that his country has transformed the financial crisis into an opportunity, so the funds allocated to the defence expenditure count for 2.34 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, which place Greece “in a small club of four NATO member states fulfilling the over 2 percent commitment.”
Talking about the Smart Defence and Pooling and Sharing concepts, the Hellenic National Defence General Staff’s Chief highlights the significance and necessity of these concepts for the coordinated development of the defence capabilities.
As regards the collaboration with the Romanian Defence Ministry, General Kostarakos stresses that the target is to expand and upgrade the current cooperation.
AGERPRES: NATO has announced that an important item on the agenda of the incoming summit meeting in Wales regards upgrading its collective defence capacity and rethinking defence investment so that the alliance may be prepared to meet any challenge. Given the latest developments in the security environment of the Eastern Europe, how do you think this important objective should be approached? What are the practical solutions envisaged by Greece?
Mikhail Kostarakos: For over 65 years NATO has been at the forefront of building stability in an unpredictable word. It underpins our freedom and security from the west coast of America to our eastern European Borders. The citizens of our countries expect NATO members to be willing and able to defend themselves and their Allies in the event that they are threatened in accordance with our 2010 Strategic Concept.
Our world is changing, new threats are emerging, and we need to be able to deal with multiple challenges. In that respect we must all ensure we have the forces, equipment, plans and training to allow us to deal with the threats we face, individually and together, now and in the future, and to this end we should proceed to the appropriate commitments.
These commitments will ensure that our alliance remains robust and able to perform its tasks.
AGERPRES: There has been much talk of NATO pivoting to its Eastern Flank after the events in Ukraine. Poland, the Baltic States and Romania have all pleaded for NATO and particularly the United States strengthening their presence of their soil. Romania is urging for the consolidation of the entire flank, not just the Baltic States and Poland. What is Greece’s stand on this?
Mikhail Kostarakos: Greece is indeed very concerned about the decline of the security environment in NATO’s Eastern Flank. The general region of the Black Sea historically fell within the geostrategic interest of Greece and we consider it to be a part of our neighborhood. Hellenic communities thrived in this area and many Greeks still live peacefully, work and prosper there.
Addressing this common challenge in a comprehensive, determined and consolidated way will maximize the safety and security of the area.
At this point, I need to stress that the same applies to the Southern Flank. The political volatility and the stability and security level’s deterioration that we witness in the countries of this region, produces security threats that affect further than just the neighboring countries.
AGERPRES: What do you think the role of the EU defence bodies should be in the current context? Can their role be rethought given security situation in Europe?
Mikhail Kostarakos: Currently the EU defence bodies are focused mainly in building up the required and necessary defence capabilities needed by the EU to fulfill its role as it is described in the Headline Goal 2010 and in the missions to be carried out in Petersburg Tasks as well as in the European Security Strategy (ESS). These missions are still valid in the current security situation EU is facing all along its borders but also in its immediate surroundings (i.e. Middle East). The uses of EU forces are mainly focused in the civilian-military area and less on the defence side. Therefore the relevant EU bodies you mentioned are up to their current mission and objectives set out by the political guidance given to them by the EU Member States, and those missions and objectives clearly mirror the current security situation in Europe.
Financing of EU missions and operations is another important work stand, which includes the underway review of the Athena Mechanism. Greece supports the expansion of the common costs to include re-deployment and sustainment of the EU BGs in the area of operations.
The internal and external security of the EU also includes the global maritime domain. In this context Greece is satisfied with the adoption be the European Council ot the EU Maritime Security Strategy and stands ready to assist the Italian efforts towards the development and adoption of an effective action Plan, by the end of this year.
All the aforementioned are not feasible without the appropriate defence capabilities. In this domain, we need to support the role of the EDA as a facilitator in order for the MS to develop the appropriate and required defence capabilities and ensure thus the internal and external security of the EU and its MS.
AGERPRES: There has been much talk of the Smart Defence concept, developed at NATO level, and Pooling and Sharing, developed at the EU level. What is your country’s take on them?
Mikhail Kostarakos: We believe in these initiatives. This is the reason we fully support them, considering it of particular importance for the coordinated development of capabilities among the member-states.
Furthermore, the current international financial situation renders the adoption of such initiatives particularly necessary. From a military point of view, we are interested in focusing on these programmes that have the perspective to produce critical military capabilities, simultaneously achieving the desired scale economies. Thus emerges the need to prioritise our efforts.
In the spirit of the ‘Pooling and Sharing’ initiative Greece seeks more opportunities for multinational cooperation with other member-states, particularly at a bilateral and regional level.
In regard to Smart Defence, we have expressed interest in a good number of the proposals and look forward in future work to further develop them.
AGERPRES: At a meeting this June with his Romanian counterpart Mircea Dusa, Greece’s Defence Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos highlighted the high level of the defence ties between the two armies and appreciated the professionalism of the Romanian troops. He also announced that a decision was made to expand defence cooperation and there was talk of memoranda being signed to this end in the near future. Can you tell us what kind of cooperation it is and what the cooperation areas of the memoranda are?
Mikhail Kostarakos: As a follow on to the recent visit of the Minister of Defence of the Hellenic Republic and in order to promote our already enhanced cooperation, we are in the process of enacting a new and comprehensive agreement between our MoDs.
The scope of the new Agreement is to set the framework and the structure to enhance Defence, Military, Strategic and Technological Cooperation and strengthen the capabilities of our Armed Forces.
The purpose is to expand and upgrade existing cooperation. In this respect the Agreement between the Ministry of National Defence of the Hellenic Republic and the Ministry of National Defence of Romania on cooperation in the Military field, signed in Athens, on 06 May 2010, will remain in force.
Taking into consideration all these I would like to inform you that we are considering to set up a joint Romanian — Greek military committee in order to workup a draft of the abovementioned Agreement.
AGERPRES: Greece, more than any other European state, has been deeply affected by financial crisis. How was the defense budget built in such circumstances and how was the issue of defense spending solved? What percentage of the GDP has been allocated to the Defense Ministry this year and will there be a rise in it in 2015?
Mikhail Kostarakos: Unfortunately, Greece was struck with severity by the financial crisis. To be able to preserve, as a minimum, our deterrent capabilities to the levels demanded by the Greek people, we had to turn to one of the main characteristics of the Greek people: innovation.
So, we turned crisis into an opportunity. An opportunity to produce more with fewer sources. An opportunity to re-evaluate what was considered granted until that time. To produce new ideas on how to best use the limited funds at hand. The Hellenic Armed Forces needed to be transformed. We came up with a new Force Structure that led to leaner, flexible and robust Armed Forces, equipped with great and effective firepower, integrated in an appropriate organizational structure, characterized by enhanced deployability. This transformation, which has already been concluded, reduced the Armed Forces ‘footprint’, but didn’t affect its effectiveness.
It was also accompanied by economies of scale through synergies achieved by the operation of the new units. It also led to better management of human and financial resources, as the manpower made available through units’ disbandment will be reassigned to first line units, increasing their staffing ratio. Acquisition of new systems fall back on priority, giving way to the full exploitation of the potential of the modern weapon systems that are currently in service with our Armed Forces, through upgrades.
Emphasis has also been given to the achievement of further interoperability and the enhancement of standardization.
Regarding the funds allocated to Defence spending, they are 2.34% of the Gross Domestic Product, placing Greece in the small club of only four NATO nations that fulfil the ‘above 2%’ commitment. For 2015, it may be early to make any predicaments on how much funds the Hellenic Government will allocate to the Defence, as it is related to the GDP itself. Nevertheless, I am confident that it will be a fair share of the GDP and that our requests will be met, taking into consideration the high level of importance placed on national defence.
AGERPRES
