Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos ( el, Νικόλαος Παναγιωτόπουλος; born 18 August 1965 in

Kavala Kavala ( el, Καβάλα, ''Kavála'' ) is a city in northern Greece, the principal seaport of eastern Macedonia and the capital of Kavala regional unit. It is situated on the Bay of Kavala, across from the island of Thasos and on the Egnat ...

) is a Greek politician of the

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in Chinese Communist Revolution, post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path ...

party who has been serving as Minister for National Defence in the

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Kyriakos Mitsotakis Kyriakos Mitsotakis ( el, Κυριάκος Μητσοτάκης, ; born 4 March 1968) is a Greek politician serving as the prime minister of Greece since 8 July 2019. A member of the New Democracy (Greece), New Democracy, he has been its presi ...

since 2019.

Political career

During Panagiotopoulos' time in office, the Greek parliament approved the purchase of six new and 12 used

Dassault Rafale The Dassault Rafale (, literally meaning "gust of wind", and "burst of fire" in a more military sense) is a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. Equipped with a wide ran ...

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

from France for 2.5 billion euros ($3.04 billion) in January 2021. Later that year, he led efforts on a defence pact between Greece and France, a NATO ally, whereby they would come to each other's aid in the event of an external threat. The pact included an order for three French frigates worth 3 billion euros.John Irish (28 September 2021)
Macron tells Europe to 'stop being naive' after France signs defence deal with Greece
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

''.

References

Living people 1965 births People from Kavala New Democracy (Greece) politicians Ministers of National Defence of Greece Greek MPs 2019–2023 {{Greece-politician-stub