OPINION — In a world the place world energy is not solely fought over by means of use of army would possibly however received by means of wit, diplomacy, and innovation, Greece is recasting its story. Main that transformation, at the least in Financial Diplomacy, is Greece’s new Deputy Overseas Minister Harry Theoharis, a person who envisions a brand new Greece: one which equates protection modernization with financial diplomacy to place the nation as a critical regional participant within the Jap Mediterranean and past.
In his first public remarks when he took the position in late June, Theoharis was clear: Financial diplomacy is not only a query of endorsing commerce missions or signing memos. The first purpose is to make use of it as a strategic multiplier—to synergize Greece’s enhanced protection capabilities, its growing innovation economic system, and its world partnerships right into a single related, cohesive, forward-looking international coverage message.
Previously, protection and diplomacy have run parallel programs in Greece. With this new Deputy Overseas Minister on the helm, these programs have begun to cross over. Greece’s will quickly come to see that multi-billion-euro investments (determined from 2020 to right now) in protection modernization—new Rafale fighter planes, Belharra-class frigates, air protection missiles, and superior weapons methods—might serve a twin objective: bolstering nationwide safety whereas offering worldwide partnerships and market alternatives.
Deputy Overseas Minister Theoharis has deliberately linked protection procurement with export promotion and industrial cooperation. Exhibitions like DEFEA (Protection Exhibition Athens) usually are not simply army exhibitions anymore; they’re statecraft instruments, welcoming generals but in addition buyers, tech startups, and international ministers. The message is unambiguous: Greece isn’t solely defending its borders anymore. It sells its capabilities, innovation, and reliability.
Below this new method, Greek financial diplomacy additionally goes hi-tech. In collaboration with the Ministry of Protection, Greece’s Hellenic Heart for Protection Innovation (HCDI) has established itself as a magnet for worldwide buyers and R&D facilities. Its work on the promotion of dual-use applied sciences – AI, drones, cyber protection, and safe communications – which have put Greece on the map as a enterprise accomplice in NATO and EU innovation ecosystems.
Initiatives reminiscent of joint symposia with France and rising cooperation with India and Armenia usually are not simply symbolic. They’re pitches for funding. Protection is the icebreaker; financial cooperation is the primary course.
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One of the crucial astute steps Greece has taken is to position itself not merely as a purchaser of protection merchandise, however as a regional hub for coaching, logistics, and training.
Kalamata worldwide pilot coaching middle, working in collaboration with Israel, is now of curiosity to a number of different nations. Latest agreements involving cooperation with Armenia, Cape Verde, and Egypt on army training, simulation expertise, and logistical assist usually are not protection agreements—these are medium- and long-term undertakings that deliver collectively state safety with institutional belief and financial interplay.
By linking army coaching programs with financial diplomacy missions, Greece has rewritten its narrative: not a client of safety, however a producer of safety. Now not a minor participant within the area, however a gateway to Europe, the Center East, and Africa.
The important thing to the success of Deputy Overseas Minister Theoharis shall be in his capability to marry imaginative and prescient with operational accuracy. His ministry has launched such devices as myOEY.stay.gov.gr to hurry up export licensing and investor involvement, opening Greece to international companions. Now he should additionally assist to strengthen the Overseas Direct Funding Screening Mechanism to maintain Greece open – however not susceptible – to international capital in strategic sectors like power, infrastructure, and protection expertise.
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This emphasis on transparency, governance, and digital effectivity isn’t bureaucratic, it is strategic. It is a sign to potential companions and buyers: Greece means enterprise. To succeed, Greece should additional develop and consolidate its operating high-value partnerships:
– With France, by means of protection innovation and industrial co-development
– With India, by means of the first-ever Greece–India protection settlement and army workouts like “Iniochos”
– With Saudi Arabia and Egypt, in areas from air protection to maritime safety, to power diplomacy.
– With Armenia, in protection trade collaboration and joint coaching initiative.
All these alliances started as a safety dialogue, however in time turned broader diplomatic and financial alternatives.
Greece’s fashionable historical past has been outlined by disaster: financial, immigration, geopolitical. However now a distinct story is being written: certainly one of confidence, competence, and planning and the Hellenic Ministry of Overseas Affairs takes a entrance seat to that. The portfolio of the Deputy Overseas Minister for Financial Diplomacy and Extroversion is paramount to the profitable integration of those areas.
The brand new Deputy Overseas Minister is already displaying {that a} clear, coherent imaginative and prescient can alter how a nation is perceived and the way it operates. Protection is not only weapons anymore; it is alliances. Diplomacy is not only friendliness anymore; it is growth. And financial coverage is not only homegrown anymore; it is worldwide, strategic, and safety oriented.
By bringing collectively the nation’s protection modernization plans (already fifth in NATO for a number of years when it comes to spending as a proportion of GDP), innovation potential, and international funding technique, Greece can rise as a serious, multidimensional world participant.
Greece should not have a look at international coverage, protection, and financial planning in isolation and as a substitute present the world that it doesn’t simply react to the world’s challenges, however affords options and long-standing partnerships. In different phrases, in a world gone mad, Greece proves that it may be an sincere mediator amongst state actors and an island of stability for the West.
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