Evangelos Apostolakis

It is hardly the first time for a Greek government to appoint as minister a cadre of the main opposition. Such moves are designed to signal a broadening of the ruling party’s ideological and electoral base.

The defence minister underlined Greece’s efforts to achieve a normalisation of relations.

'We seek peace and security but under no circumstances will we back off from defending our sovereign rights. We wish to avoid tensions,' the Greek defence minister said after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar at a Nato meeting.

Apostolakis said that the two countries’ lonstanding defence cooperation is constantly increasing, and that from now on it will be much more effective.