The inclusion of the frigate “Kimon” and the other three FDI HN frigates in the Hellenic Navy will make it the most powerful Navy that Hellenism has ever had, stressed National Defence Minister Nikos Dendias in his speech on Thursday. Dendias was speaking during a ceremony at the Naval Group shipyards in Lorient, France to name and raise the Greek flag on the first of Greece’s Belharra-class frigates.

“Greece is strengthening itself not in order to threaten but to protect, to guarantee and to deter, placing right before might,” Dendias said.

The minister said that it was, for him, the highest honour to “raise the Greek flag on the frigate ‘Kimon’,” as Greece “lives and breathes through the sea”.

According to Dendias, it was “inconceivable” for Greece to have a Navy without powerful capabilities and the ability to position itself promptly where the interests of Hellenism were being shaped. The “Kimon” will be returning to the Mediterranean to “underscore the present power of Greece,” he added.

“I have signed for the inclusion of the “Kimon” in the Hellenic Navy, strengthening deterrent capacity. I deliver to the Hellenic Navy a platform of exceptional power. The personnel of the Armed Forces will always have this importance for the political leadership,” he added.

After the minister’s speech, the Greek flag was raised on the frigate’s mast as the Greek national anthem played, after which the ship’s crew came aboard.

The ceremony was attended by French Defence Minister Catherine Vautrin, Deputy Minister of National Defence Thanasis Davakis, the Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff (HNDGS), General Dimitrios Houpis, the Chief of the Hellenic Navy General Staff (HNGS), Rear Admiral Dimitrios – Eleftherios Kataras RN, the chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff (HAGS) Lieutenant General Georgios Kostidis, former defence minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos, Naval Group President Pierre Eric Pommellet and other officials.