The powder-smoked 111th Fighter Wing, where he served 33 years ago – then in the 346 Squadron – was visited this morning by Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The Prime Minister began his tour of Magnesia from the military airport of Nea Anchialos, where warplanes that patrol and perform interception missions in the Aegean Sea take off from. Mitsotakis was welcomed at 346 Squadron by the Chief of the General Staff, Vice Admiral Demosthenes Grigoriadis, who was then serving as a lieutenant there, along with the commanders of all the squadrons.

The prime minister had a coffee and talked with the fighter pilots – among them one of the three women flying the F-16s of the Air Force, stressing the importance the government attaches to the strengthening of the Armed Forces and their modernization by 2030, as he said it is one of the most important components of the national effort for a strong Greece, capable of meeting the increased security and stability requirements in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.

He also made a special reference to the launching of the third frigate Belharra, while negotiations for a fourth frigate, with Greek industrial participation of 25%, are progressing.

The Prime Minister also referred to the role of the Armed Forces’ human resources in the whole effort, while for the conscripts he described the service as an “experience of a lifetime”. “The minister and I want to see how to make it more productive,” he noted.

Before continuing his tour in Magnesia, the Chief of the General Staff invited him to fly from the airport in the next period, as his father, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, had done at the time, while the fighter pilots presented him with a watch with the emblem of the squadron.

However, it is not the first time that Kyriakos Mitsotakis is in the familiar grounds where he served his military service in 1992-1993, as he visited Nea Anchialos again before the 2019 elections and in 2022.