Dentias proposed that Greece take over the administration of European action in the Red Sea

Nicos Tendias, who arrived at an informal meeting of the EU's defense ministers, said he would propose the Larissa headquarters as the headquarters for European operations in the Red Sea.

In fact, the defense minister said, “We will talk today about the European defense industry, apart from Ukraine, which is of particular interest to Greece. On the one hand, to see what opportunities there are to strengthen the Greek defense industry, but also to see what adaptations can be made to the Greek defense innovation system that we are trying to build.”

Also, we will discuss the European operation in the Red Sea, and I propose that Greece take command of the operation, as well as providing Larissa as the headquarters for the operation.

What was the European operation in the Red Sea called?

Joseph Borrell announced that the European operation against the Houthis will be called “Shields” and will begin on February 17. He said he is sure that a decision will be taken. Not all member states are willing to participate, but no one will stand in the way, I believe. Those who do not want to participate should stay away so as not to disrupt the execution of the work,'' he said.

“We want to be very fast. I hope the cargo sales will start on the 17th of this month. We have to decide which country will command, where the headquarters will be, which naval assets will be available to the member states,” he added.

“We have a name, Aspides, which means protector.”

“The purpose is not to protect ships, to intercept attacks and enemy ships, to engage in some kind of operations against the Houthis, but to prevent attacks on ships,” he explained.

“This is definitely an important task. We are all concerned about Suez Canal traffic, and “Many European companies are asking us to go ahead because their business model is very affected by the high cost of going through South Africa to get to Europe. This affects costs and hence prices. This affects inflation. So it's natural to try to avoid this risk,” Borrell concluded.